A Commonplace Book

Commonplace books began in 15th century England. They were used as scrapbooks and contained anything a person wanted/needed to remember -- recipes, medical remedies, sayings, etc. No two commonplace books are the same because each reflects the person keeping it.

In 1961 when I began my commonplace book, I did not know that was what I was doing. All I knew was that I had just read something in a book and underlining it was not enough. I wanted to have the quote in a place where I could find it when I needed it. This was the first quote I saved:

"That's how much of life works: our friends float past; we become involved with them; they float on, and we must rely on hearsay or lose track of them completely; they float back again, and we either renew our friendship -- catch up to date -- or find that they and we don't comprehend each other any more." The Floating Opera by John Barth

This electronic commonplace book will certainly be a place where I share quotes from reading, but it will also be a place for my photographs as well as short essays on whatever engages my mind.

If you are primarily interested in a list of the books I've written and what they are about, and excerpts from reviews, please go to

http://members.authorsguild.net/juliuslester

Even though I will include photographs here, I do have a website devoted to my photography:

http://www.profotos.com/juliuslester