During the early modern era, it was typical that young students would compile what was called a commonplaces book.

These books were simply selections from the various things a student was reading. Significantly, however, commonplace books are not usually organized chronologically, as would be the case with journals. Rather, they are arranged topically and provide a ready-made collection of excerpts that the student found particularly moving, instructive, or otherwise useful.

I plan to use this blog in roughly that fashion. This will be a place where I post regular excerpts from things I am reading. In many ways, this is simply a helpful thing for me so even if no one ever visits this site, it will still be of use to me as a repository of quotes and ideas that I have found helpful in some way.

The Weekly Digest

Premier Thought Every Thursday.

All of our recent essays and podcasts, delivered to you. Free.

Free. Delivered Thursday mornings.

The Author

Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, First Things, Books & Culture, National Review, Comment, Books & Culture, and Christianity Today. He is a contributing editor with Plough and a contributing writer at the Dispatch. He lives in his hometown of Lincoln, NE with his wife and four children.

The Author

Mere Orthodoxy