I recently purchased Wide Open, an awesome set of inspiration cards for journaling, and today I’ve been looking through the journal that comes with the set. It also has prompts and tips. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I love journaling and crafting but it’s been some time since I’ve felt the urge to create, mainly due to just not finding enough time. Anyway, I know my creativity spark will come back and in the meantime I’ll play with these cards and be inspired.
One exercise in the creativity notebook that did catch my attention was on collecting movie lines. The author encourages you to think about your favorite movie lines and use those in your art. Well, I have a terrible memory when it comes to movie lines (same thing for remembering a joke’s punch line) so that’s not useful to me but I do have a collection of book excerpts that I’ve liked.
I used to write these down in a book journal and I realize I don’t do this as much anymore. Well, I do write lines that I’ll use for a blog post/review but once that’s done I don’t keep a record of them outside the blog. I think I need to start doing that again. Want to see what some of the jottings in my journals are? Here are a couple:
- “Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life, he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment” ~ from Of Human Bondage
- “What really knocks me out is a book, that when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.” ~ from The Catcher in the Rye
Do you keep a collection of favorite lines from books too?
I’m a highlighter kinda girl myself. That’s why I love buying books because I write in mine as well. It’s like every book is a journal. I know a lot of bookies would be agast, but I think it shows my love in a different way.
I use a highlighter, too. I usually copy those passages into my reading journal, but it might be fun to put them all together in one journal (since they’re scattered about in dozen!). I love the one from Catcher in the Rye.
I love your quotes. Here are a few on mine:
“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining-board.” I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
“I tell you. I fell in love with a tree. I couldn’t not. It was in blossom.”
May – Ali Smith (The Whole Story & Other Stories)
“You gave your life to become the person you are right now. Was it worth it?” One – Richard Bach.
I used to collect favourite lines. I found the little notebook I used to do this in the other day. Was nice to look back through. I should start doing it again. I have the perfect notebook for it, too.
I do that only for the ones I love the best. I am about to put in entries for
Kabbalah: A Love Story by L. Kushner. It has a lot of insights. I am also going to review it this weekend and select the best of the best quotes for my blog.
Yes, I keep notebooks of quotes and ideas from my reading, too! Your post triggered a whole string of thoughts and memories for me, so I wrote about them in my own post this morning. Thanks for the inspiration! Your blog is always an enjoyable and refreshing part of my morning reading.
Thanks for that link to Wide Open (and the others it linked to). I’m in desperate need for something like that now/ Although I work in an ad agency and am surrounded by creative people every day, I’ve never felt even remotely creative at work. Draining, yes; creative, no. This is a fantastic find.
Hope you’re having a good weekend.
I often take down quotes, lately I’ve been adding them to the online book thingy I use; http://www.anobii.com but somehow it feels better when I actually write them down 🙂
Nik – I never could get into using a highlighter but I tag a lot with post its! Whatever works I say 🙂
Les in NE – It is fun to keep them all together, becoming your own source for quotes don’t you think?
Christine – Ooh, I liked those you shared!
Quixotic – See if you have a perfect notebook then you must 🙂
Isabel – I’m looking forward to reading those!
Robin – Thank you! I’ve been having a rough day and that helped to brighten it 🙂 I’ll be visiting later!
Kisane – I am loving the cards so if you get them you have to let me know what you think. Have you ever checked out Keri Smith’s blog? Great source for inspiration. Hope you have a good relaxing weekend 🙂
Fence – I’ve never seen that before. That’s quite cool! But, I agree I like to write them down too.
I definitely keep a quote journal! I use it mainly for quotes I find while reading a book, but also just for random quotes that appeal to me at the time. I like the idea of filling a journal with these because it’s always fun to go back and look through it.
I used to keep 3×5 cards with quotes from books in a little geeky file box–which I had forgotten about til I read your post. I’ll have to dig them up! But a journal is maybe a better idea. And I think I have to buy “Wide Open”, because I could use the inspiration…
I never seem to have a pencil or post it handy when I read something really good, but I wish I did keep a journal like that!
My favourite and one that I give to my students is from Salley Vickers’ latest book, ‘The Other Side of You’ : “It’s the mistakes that let the light in.” We are all so frightened of making mistakes, but if we use them wisely they can be turning points in our lives.
I did keep a book quote journal, but like you I’ve kind of slacked off of it. I need to dig it out and start up again. Thanks for the reminder!!
I love the Catcher in the Rye quote. I used to collect quotes, but I can’t keep track of anything, lately, so I’m not trying. I do sometimes type up favorites in my reviews, though.
I seem to be a geek. I collect quotes I like in a word-file on the computer.
This way I can just copy and paste them in blog or forum posts or comments. ;o)
“The mere thought hadn’t even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.”
Douglas Adams
“Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds”
Douglas Adams
But sometimes when I’m reading a book somewhere else I forget to mark the place of the quote in the book and then later I’m too lazy to look it up again. So, I guess, it would be a good idea to get a little notebook that I can carry around with me.
I like to highlight. I do have a collection of some quotes, but they’re somewhere on a CD I burned. I haven’t put them back on my computer since I reverted my hard drive. Also, I remember that quote from “The Catcher in the Rye” standing out when I read the book.
I love book quotes! Every time I find an old journal of mine, my favorite parts are the book quotes. One, because of the poignancy that got me to copy it in the first place, and two is probably because I feel such relief that I saved the quote from oblivion, since I never would have remembered it and probably never would have read the book again.
Amanda – I agree, it’s fun to look back on a journal.
Gentle Reader – Oh I like your geeky box idea too 🙂
Danielle – I know. I never do either which is surpising considering how often I’m buying pens! ha.
Ann – I really liked that quote. I need to read that book.
Heather – I’m going to try and start doing this again too. Let’s see how it goes.
Nancy – I do that sometimes too so it’s better than nothing right? Still it is nicer to have them all together.
Samulli – I love those quotes especially the last one.
Justin – You are super organized I see 🙂 I need to organize mine because they are all over the place now.
Camille – Exactly! So are you still keeping your book quotes?