Tom Standage wrote an article called “how commonplace books were like tumbler and Pinterest” about commonplacing. Now I had a tumbler but never really used it but I do still have and use my finsta, a finsta is a “fake Instagram” On this Instagram it is my select friends where I can post memes that I found funny and fits a mood of something I want to talk about, often about a special interest of mine. This to me sounds like Standage’s definition of a commonplace book with a modern-day interpretation, in his article he says “commonplace books that survive from the Tudor period contain a huge variety of texts, including letters, poems, medical remedies, prose, jokes, ciphers, riddles, quotations, and drawings.” It is a great way for me to build inside jokes with my friends and have my college friends interact with my friends at home. I don’t use my finsta too much but when I was struggling with self-expression it was a great way to share my thoughts and feelings in a way that was public while no one really ever saw it except when I wanted them to.
“[T]he practices of maintaining a commonplace book and exchanging texts with others also served as a form of self-definition: which poems or aphorisms you chose to copy into your book or to pass on to your correspondents said a lot about you, and the book as a whole was a reflection of your character and personality.”
If I were to describe my commonplace book I would simply put it as my ADHD fueled rampage. I tried to use the CPB as a space for me to talk about the thoughts that came to my mind, so while there is no cohesiveness and focus on one topic like the esoteric or greek gods ect I wanted to let this book develop with me over the semester. On tik toc I recorded a video of myself from the start of the school year then on a few major holidays that I will end on the last day of the semester, so far I have gone through no physical changes but I have noticed from my CPBs and QCQs I have started changing the way I write and the way I approached the CPB project. I want to call attention to 3 of my commonplace books and how this trend seems to follow throughout my CPB, I choose my 3 favorite CPBs to talk about, CPB #1 Frankenstein, CPB#5 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and CPB #9 The beetle.
In my first CPB, I remember fretting over wondering if I had done it right or if I had done enough, so I added pictures and tried to mess around with the font, I ended up talking for a few hours with my friend Peter about what I was going to write about and that helped me bring out the authenticity of it all. Once I realized how this project works and looking at my peer’s work I started opening up more and choosing to make it less performative for the sight but much more authentic. My CPB #5 is one of my favorites, musical theater is something I really enjoy and I wanted to talk about a song that had made a profound impact on me. So while the song didn’t really relate to the chapter of the book we were in I thought it was a great time to share a piece that really impacted me. Then finally CPB #9 is probably one of my favorites because I love entomology and getting to talk about bugs and freak some people out. The common thread I find through this project is me talking about my favorite things and topics that are meaningful to me.
I am planning to carry on my commonplace book with a book called Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims. This is a take on the classic haunted houses, but the intricate story Sims built has caused this book to quickly rise to be one of my all-time favorite books of all time. The name itself is a pun, the book is about 13 people invited to a dinner party with a billionaire, Tobias Fell, who has been hidden from the public eye for years. All of these 13 people live on the different stories of Tobias Fell’s apartment complex. This book has a lot of refreshing takes on ghosts and the like while also having a deeper meaning about the state of the world in our capitalist state. I won’t say anymore but I highly recommend this book and cannot wait until I get the chance to re-read it and take a deeper look into it. Maybe I will make it a more permanent CPB and put my thoughts on the back pages so if I lend it someone else can add their thoughts to it, that would be a fun little project. I really enjoyed taking a new approach to my reading and the commonplacing a book is something I will carry with me when I read a new book.
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