Commonplace

A word usually understood to mean general or ordinary but in association with the word book, as in commonplace book, it turns into meaning noticeable or perhaps even special. Elizabeth Smither's latest book The Commonplace Book is out-of-the ordinary and very interesting.


Elizabeth Smither has always kept notes of what she reads and hears; extracts from poems, overheard conversations, headlines from newspapers and intersperses these in her notebooks with her own thoughts and memories. In the preface she calls this "a miscellany of profound or light or provocative items...form the linkages of a life as it is lived. Particularly the life of a writer as it is affected by the writings of others". This commonplace book is not a diary but it does give insight into the thoughts and creative processes of a writer.

Charming, interesting, motivating - I have started my own commonplace book!