The Diary of Adam and Eve ~ Classic Read

[Melanti]

It's A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories, which is a collection of all of his stories with a similar premise to Fahrenheit 451, including the two novellas that were later expanded into the novel.

It's just a bit too much to have them grouped all together like this. Two or three per collection, I can handle. 400 pages worth though, that's about 300 pages too many!

[Melanti]

Brenda wrote: "Wow I'm impressed, I can never remember quotes or anything like this. It makes me feel a little dumb, lol. Oh well tomorrow is another day!!!"

With e-books, I can highlight and then go back and view just my highlights... But also with a highly quotable author like Vonnegut, many of the best quotes have already been added to someone's favorite quotes list, and those are listed on the book's page.

I do memorize some quotes, but others I just remember the general gist of it and then either paraphrase or go look it up!

[Julia]

I keep collections of quotations called "Commonplace Books": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonpl...
"Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were taught to keep commonplace books at Harvard University (their commonplace books survive in published form)."

I'm up to three so far, and I used the CP book as an assignment for students, who really liked the idea. They would collect 10 quotes they loved and then illustrate them with photos, art, etc. Several saved them to put out for their graduation parties :-)

I'd tell them to choose quotes that showed who they were, so that in the future they could give the book to their spouse or children as a way of knowing them. It was much easier for them to find meaningful quotes than to just journal--and I've kept up that practice.

Poets.org has a neat paragraph about CP books: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/pr...

[Erin]

Julia wrote: "I keep collections of quotations called "Commonplace Books": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonpl...
"Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were taught to keep commonplace books at..."

I've never heard of that, but what a fabulous idea! I've been struggling to journal on a regular basis -- so anything that makes it easier is great. And I do love collecting quotes and making collages out of magazine pictures and whatnot -- though I haven't done that in years. One of my favorite things about the Kindle is highlighting passages.

[Brenda]

Thank you Erin for expressing that opinion for me. I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. I love the idea and have the perfect journal to begin with. Commonplace books are some thing I don't remember learning about in school some forty years ago. Or even in my college years.

[Julia]

I really enjoyed learning about them, and so much is online now. I like the simple explanation from this website: http://laurabethmann.com/content/?p=303

Another interesting example is by Elizabeth Smither (Auckland University Press, 2011: The Commonplace Book: A Writer's Journey Through Quotations