What’s in your commonplace books?

[WidgetOtaku]

I’ve recently bought myself online a “slightly new” notebook which is specifically designed as a commonplace book. btw it has various types of paper types (ie. lined, plain, etc).

Also today, I’ve found a YT video which intrigued me with the concept of commonplace books being used to record one’s hyper-fixations (especially when you’re neurodivergent like me).

I’ll probably make my first one dedicated to information towards one of my comfort characters :3

I’m curious: does anyone else fascinated with these types of notebooks? What information do you keep in them?

[TheFrugalGamer]

I keep an online Commonplace book in the form of a wiki, using the same MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia. It's not fully open to the public, but it's helped me a LOT when it comes to coming up with and organizing ideas, as well as recalling info about my various interests. The reason I went with a digital one is because I wanted it to be searchable :) Also, I'm a big fan of lists, so those make up a big part of the content here.

Here are some of the things I've put in mine:
* Lists of deities, sorted by religion
* Info about physical virtual pets, complete with pictures, release dates, etc
* Lists of off-brand MP3 players (non-Apple made)
* Ideas that later turn into blog posts
* A page dedicated to my favorite quotes
* Topics from my worldbuilding project
* Page with lists of different analog horror series (with links)
* lists of ARGs I'm interested in
* Code snippets and command line references
* Pictures of building ideas for Minecraft and Luanti
* Detailed reference info about each of the electronic devices I have in my possession
* lists of projects I want to try, both physical and digital

[WidgetOtaku]

Here are some of the things I've put in mine:
* Lists of deities, sorted by religion
* Info about physical virtual pets, complete with pictures, release dates, etc
* Lists of off-brand MP3 players (non-Apple made)
* Ideas that later turn into blog posts
* A page dedicated to my favorite quotes
* Topics from my worldbuilding project
* Page with lists of different analog horror series (with links)
* lists of ARGs I'm interested in
* Code snippets and command line references
* Pictures of building ideas for Minecraft and Luanti
* Detailed reference info about each of the electronic devices I have in my possession
* lists of projects I want to try, both physical and digital

That’s quite impressive!

btw here’s the video I’ve found recently to which I’ve mentioned in my initial post:

Although idk if my first commonplace book should be about Tecna (Winx Club) or Mega-Brain (Widget The World Watcher)…

[BlazingCobaltX]

My commonplace book is for storing thoughts and quotes I don't immediately have a use for. Currently it contains the following categories (they can overlap):

• Work: Things that are directly relevant to my field of study, like quotes from reports or stray thoughts based on discussions at the office.
• Politics: For thoughts about current/past world events and political ideologies.
• Man and world: Very broad category which includes history, nature, cultural anthropology and much more.
• Me: For self-reflections and for things other people say about me, to counter my instinct of keeping these thoughts to myself.

Why just 4? Because my marker set only has 4 colours. I've been looking for more colours but so far no luck.

[WidgetOtaku]

My commonplace book is for storing thoughts and quotes I don't immediately have a use for. Currently it contains the following categories (they can overlap):

• Work: Things that are directly relevant to my field of study, like quotes from reports or stray thoughts based on discussions at the office.
• Politics: For thoughts about current/past world events and political ideologies.
• Man and world: Very broad category which includes history, nature, cultural anthropology and much more.
• Me: For self-reflections and for things other people say about me, to counter my instinct of keeping these thoughts to myself.

Why just 4? Because my marker set only has 4 colours. I've been looking for more colours but so far no luck.

That’s a cool system! 

[3lsie]

Ooh I'm so happy there's a thread about this! Have you started your book now, @WidgetOtaku ? 

My favourite things in my commonplace book are:

• Reflections on the media I consume each month
• Notes from books I read
• Bits of info for games I play that I would keep referring back to (e.g. villagers' fav gifts in a farming sim)
• Planning a DnD character
• A list of self care activities and soothing things to watch

[Mezzaluna]

Sorry for adding so late to the thread! 

I just hoard whatever info I find interesting or helpful at the moment. Usually it’s stuff from YouTube videos, podcasts, books, or comment threads. More specifically:

• Quotes (from podcasts,YouTube videos,etc)
• Book summaries
• Notes on YouTube videos
• Screenshots of interesting posts (usually if it’s too long to handwrite)

[starbreaker]

In my case, it's mostly lines that I want to use in my fiction even if I don't have time to write a full scene or a chapter. Stuff like this:

• In his heart it was always two minutes to midnight on a Raymond Chandler evening. The crisis was always imminent, but it had not happened yet.
• "I didn't sell out, Naomi. I bought in. I'm still paying for it, too. Don't ever mistake me for a victim; I know what I did to myself, and I'd do it again to be at your side."
• "Are we truly entrusting the fate of humanity to an android who wears a t-shirt emblazoned with 'this machine kills fascists'?"

They aren't necessarily good lines, but you've got to start somewhere, and it's not like I'm gunning for the Nobel in literature.

[yokseekan]

While I do not have commonplace books, when I go to the cafe, I would read

• the 20th century fiction literature (e.g., Faulker, Cormac McCarthy, Irving Stone) I physically brought and the
  
• 19th century texts (e.g., Alcott's Eight Cousins, Baring's Russian Essays and Stories, Marsh's Man and Nature, The Youth's Companion, naturalist travelogues) I found on Google Books, Internet Archive, and Project Gutenberg,

and I would read them carefully and write down striking phrases and words, particularly

• sensory details (e.g., germinal heat, serried, pain-fraught, "He poured water on it to look for cracks, struck its ends with a hammer to listen for its sounds, tested for flaws, bubbles, stains"),
  
• conceptual expressions (e.g., "He decided that he would carve Mary at the moment of decision, while suckling her infant, when, knowing all, she must determine the future: for herself; for her child; for the world"), and
  
• specifics (e.g., a dozen black-lead pencils, four memorandum-books, four pocket-volumes of English poetry).