The Commonplace — Reading Journal

A slim journal that sits easily in the hand, its rounded corners and smooth cover printed with a low red sun settling between sky and field, the title pressed in gold foil. Inside, each book gets its own spread: a quick description, the quote you can’t stop thinking about, what you loved and what you didn’t, a score out of ten, and a ruled column for passages worth finding again, page numbers and all. Lists at the back hold the recommendations friends press on you and the wish list that never quite gets shorter.

For centuries, readers kept commonplace books: private notebooks where the best lines they’d ever met were copied out and carried forward. This is that habit, given a home. A considered gift for the friend who reads at every meal, the one who underlines in pen, or anyone who has finished a great book and wished they could keep every word of it.

8.5 × 6.3 × 0.5 in (21.5 × 16 × 1.3 cm) · 340 g · Paper, printed cover with gold-foil title · Made in China