Intentionally Common

The intersection of reading, research, collages, and journaling

by Selah Bell

My whole life, I’ve lived as a note-taker. In math classes I would fill entire binders each semester, the notes app on my phone is in a constant jumble, and I have amassed more notebooks than you would believe. Given my notes obsession it’s a little strange that I’ve never been able to keep up with journaling. I’m not even sure I want to know how many journals or diaries I’ve started and abandoned in my relatively short lifetime. I love writing and know that journaling is supposed to be good for you, but for me, it gets boring after a bit, and I feel kind of silly writing about myself.

Enter my new love, commonplace journaling. Commonplace books are the intersection of reading, research, collages, and journaling. Essentially, it’s keeping a notebook to write down facts, quotes, anything else you might want to collect to be able to reflect on the tidbits you compile. Some people even organize theirs into topic-based sections, creating a scrapbook of information they can easily reference.

We all know people who can reference quotes or figures from any number of books when they discuss a topic. I am no such person. Instead, I find myself saying things like, “You know that one interview with that one lady who wrote that book about the thing? Well, this is kind of the same thing if you think about it.” Profound. The meaning behind a phrase or chapter typically stays in my mind, but any specifics always seem to elude me, unless I write them down.

Photo by cottonbro studio

Commonplace books have the potential to act as a catalyst for active learning. Interacting with the ideas good literature or the world around us present allows us to engage with them on a deeper level and grow our own ideas in the process. Last year I took a course where we were required to keep a journal on the books we read. In these journals, we wrote one reflective entry for each set of readings we did, and I can’t think of many assignments that have so helped me to connect with what I was reading.

Taking in knowledge is obviously a good thing, but what’s the point of taking it in if you’re never going to interact with those ideas? Most of us are at least a bit familiar with the concepts of active and passive learning. Passive learning typically references shallow memorization and recitation. If you ever studied a subject with every hour of your time and immediately forgot that information once the incentive was gone, you have experienced passive learning. Conversely, active learning is done when you take the time to engage with and truly understand the concepts or arguments at play. Reenter, commonplace books.

The funny thing is, whether we know it or not, most of us have been adopting aspects of commonplace books for daily use. We use Pinterest and the aforementioned notes app much like a commonplace book. In my mind, the only real difference is the intentionality behind our use of these options. When we are intentional in the way we consider and interact with the world around us, we become better. Commonplace books might not be the cure-all for our minds and world, but they have so much potential as a tool for personal growth.

April 15, 2025 - Release of poetry collection by Kelly Belmonte, Mother of All Words. Preorder now!
June 2025 - Release of mystery novel for older readers by Katherine Ladny Mitchell, Not to Be
July 18–20, 2025 - Bandersnatch at the Realm Makers Expo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Learn more.
Fall 2025 - Release of middle grade fantasy novel by Glenn McCarty, The Song of the Stone Tiger
Fall 2025 - Release of illustrated children’s poetry anthology, I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry - Preorder on the Kickstarter Platform
November 2025 - Release of lower middle-grade novel by Mary Barrows, Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown

From time to time, our whole Bandersnatch Books team gets to hang out with real humans in real space-time, and this past weekend at the Greenville Great Homeschool Convention was one of those times! Here’s a peek at our time together.

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"If you start to look around, you will start to see. When what we see catches us off guard, and when we write it as realistically and openly as possible, it offers hope."
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird