"Objects are stories."
—Nicholas R. Bell, Director / CEO Royal Ontario Museum, October 2026
#CommonplaceBook
—Nicholas R. Bell, Director / CEO Royal Ontario Museum, October 2026
#CommonplaceBook
It's so smart for the new director and CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum, Nicholas R. Bell to narrate a trip to the thrift store and how it relates to his job: www.youtube.com/shorts/u8Aqy...
Come Thrifting! with Nicholas R. Bell, ROM Director and CEO
YouTube video by Royal Ontario Museum
www.youtube.com
November 8, 2026 at 11:06 PM
"Objects are stories."
—Nicholas R. Bell, Director / CEO Royal Ontario Museum, October 2026
#CommonplaceBook
—Nicholas R. Bell, Director / CEO Royal Ontario Museum, October 2026
#CommonplaceBook
What a page looks like and what it exposes are two different decisions, and I kept them in one room for too long. The binding, the type, the cover are taste. Who can read it, and where it travels, is consent. Consent has its own room now.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 12, 2026 at 5:30 PM
What a page looks like and what it exposes are two different decisions, and I kept them in one room for too long. The binding, the type, the cover are taste. Who can read it, and where it travels, is consent. Consent has its own room now.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
I wanted one place to answer a simple question: what of my book is out right now? Not what it looks like, what is open. A keeper should be able to read that off one page the way you read a table of contents, and close any line of it in a second.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
I wanted one place to answer a simple question: what of my book is out right now? Not what it looks like, what is open. A keeper should be able to read that off one page the way you read a table of contents, and close any line of it in a second.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
Settings is a room you leave. You go in, set the light and the sound, and get back to the book. That is why it is a tab on the page about you and not a drawer over the page you were reading. The reading is the point; the room is for passing through.
#journaling #commonplacebook #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #booksky
November 10, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Settings is a room you leave. You go in, set the light and the sound, and get back to the book. That is why it is a tab on the page about you and not a drawer over the page you were reading. The reading is the point; the room is for passing through.
#journaling #commonplacebook #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #booksky
November 11, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Lists live in the Library now, beside the shelves. Bookmarks is the core list: what you marked, newest mark first, nothing hidden because the book was already shelved. A shelf says what you are reading. A list says what you mean to return to.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 8, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Lists live in the Library now, beside the shelves. Bookmarks is the core list: what you marked, newest mark first, nothing hidden because the book was already shelved. A shelf says what you are reading. A list says what you mean to return to.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 6, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Every day page in my journal now opens with a note of its own, above the lines kept that day. A sentence about the day, tied to no one passage. The rule I landed on: a note goes to the thing it is about. The passage, the book, or the day.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 6, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Every day page in my journal now opens with a note of its own, above the lines kept that day. A sentence about the day, tied to no one passage. The rule I landed on: a note goes to the thing it is about. The passage, the book, or the day.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
"Given the mandate [mid-term elected Democrats] received, half-measures and weak compromises with the Trump regime would be an affront to the voters who just elected them."
--Jennifer Rubin, "The Contrarian", 5 Nov 2026
#CommonplaceBook
--Jennifer Rubin, "The Contrarian", 5 Nov 2026
#CommonplaceBook
Margins Matter
The magnitude of the victory raises the stakes for Democrats.
substack.com
November 5, 2026 at 10:26 PM
"Given the mandate [mid-term elected Democrats] received, half-measures and weak compromises with the Trump regime would be an affront to the voters who just elected them."
--Jennifer Rubin, "The Contrarian", 5 Nov 2026
#CommonplaceBook
--Jennifer Rubin, "The Contrarian", 5 Nov 2026
#CommonplaceBook
Eighteen emotions, and you can set one on a note if you want to. Not a line of its own in the log, a small face before the words. Joy, grief, wonder, bored. Months on, the face says what the words were too careful to.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
November 3, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Eighteen emotions, and you can set one on a note if you want to. Not a line of its own in the log, a small face before the words. Joy, grief, wonder, bored. Months on, the face says what the words were too careful to.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
Keep the passage the day it finds you. The comment can wait, a year if it needs to, but the date cannot be added later. Years on, the day you read a line says more than anything you wrote beside it.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 31, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Keep the passage the day it finds you. The comment can wait, a year if it needs to, but the date cannot be added later. Years on, the day you read a line says more than anything you wrote beside it.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
The second reading is the one that counts. The first time through, a line stops you and you keep it. The second time, a month on, you find out whether it was the line or the mood. A journal is built for that second reading.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 30, 2026 at 8:00 PM
The second reading is the one that counts. The first time through, a line stops you and you keep it. The second time, a month on, you find out whether it was the line or the mood. A journal is built for that second reading.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 30, 2026 at 9:02 PM
The leaf by email and the leaf in the app are the same few passages, kept by you, set out again. One reaches you, in the inbox before the day opens. One waits for you, on the page, until you come back to the book.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 29, 2026 at 4:30 PM
The leaf by email and the leaf in the app are the same few passages, kept by you, set out again. One reaches you, in the inbox before the day opens. One waits for you, on the page, until you come back to the book.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
There is a back page to every book you keep here, and you don't open it every day. That is the point of a back page. The Colophon waits for the evening you want to see how far the reading has come.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 28, 2026 at 8:00 PM
There is a back page to every book you keep here, and you don't open it every day. That is the point of a back page. The Colophon waits for the evening you want to see how far the reading has come.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
– Adam Zagajewski, from ‘A Talk with Friedrich Nietzsche’
#NorthSeaPoets #CommonplaceBook #PoetrySky
#NorthSeaPoets #CommonplaceBook #PoetrySky
October 28, 2026 at 9:02 PM
– Adam Zagajewski, from ‘A Talk with Friedrich Nietzsche’
#NorthSeaPoets #CommonplaceBook #PoetrySky
#NorthSeaPoets #CommonplaceBook #PoetrySky
The feather beside a note is a small mark that says I was here, reading. Not a review, not a rating. Just proof that a line stopped you long enough to write something next to it.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 27, 2026 at 4:30 PM
The feather beside a note is a small mark that says I was here, reading. Not a review, not a rating. Just proof that a line stopped you long enough to write something next to it.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
The same book on two shelves is still one book. A good journal knows that, so the passages you kept from it gather in one place no matter where you were tracking the reading.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 26, 2026 at 8:00 PM
The same book on two shelves is still one book. A good journal knows that, so the passages you kept from it gather in one place no matter where you were tracking the reading.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
The shelf and the commonplace book are two different records. Status and rating live on one, the passages you kept on the other. Keeping them in step lets each stay what it is.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 25, 2026 at 4:30 PM
The shelf and the commonplace book are two different records. Status and rating live on one, the passages you kept on the other. Keeping them in step lets each stay what it is.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
A title you earn by doing is a kind of standing. It says what you did in your book and on which days, and nothing else about you. In a reader's terms that is the only kind worth having.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 24, 2026 at 4:30 PM
A title you earn by doing is a kind of standing. It says what you did in your book and on which days, and nothing else about you. In a reader's terms that is the only kind worth having.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 23, 2026 at 8:04 PM
I have been keeping my journal two weeks ahead of myself, writing now what I will say later. It changes what I notice: a line has to still matter in a fortnight to make the page. Most of the loud ones don't.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 23, 2026 at 8:00 PM
I have been keeping my journal two weeks ahead of myself, writing now what I will say later. It changes what I notice: a line has to still matter in a fortnight to make the page. Most of the loud ones don't.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
There is a difference between a book that is found and a book that is visited. A shop window wants passers-by. A door waits for the people who know the address. I think a reading journal should be a door.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 22, 2026 at 4:30 PM
There is a difference between a book that is found and a book that is visited. A shop window wants passers-by. A door waits for the people who know the address. I think a reading journal should be a door.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
A margin note is a letter to a later self. You don't know yet who will read it, only that they will have the date and the line in front of them. Write it plainly and let them do the remembering.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 21, 2026 at 8:00 PM
A margin note is a letter to a later self. You don't know yet who will read it, only that they will have the date and the line in front of them. Write it plainly and let them do the remembering.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
The slowest way to read is with a pencil in hand, and it is the only way that leaves a record. A kept passage and a line beside it. A reading journal is what the pencil leaves behind.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
October 20, 2026 at 4:30 PM
The slowest way to read is with a pencil in hand, and it is the only way that leaves a record. A kept passage and a line beside it. A reading journal is what the pencil leaves behind.
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky
#journaling #commonplacebook #readingjournal #booksky