What is a “commonplace book”?

People used to keep scraps of ideas, quotations, things they’d run across, and other sundry in a notebook and call it a “commonplace” book. This is that, for me, and for you.

So here I’m writing just a little bit — about a show I’ve seen, a pattern I’ve noticed, a movie I like, a recent adventure, something I’ve been cooking, some element of the writing life. It might be a reflection on a theme that keeps surfacing, notes on craft, reviews and recommendations, or some half-formed thoughts I’ve been messing around with. And at the end, usually, some cool stuff you might want to check out.

Who are you?

I’m a senior culture writer and critic at Vox, where I cover movies and plenty of other things. I’ve also been a college professor since 2009, teaching writing, criticism, cultural theory, and film.

I’m the author of Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women (Broadleaf, 2022), a book of essays on interesting women through the lens of food and drink. Currently I’m writing We Tell Ourselves Stories (Liveright), a cultural history of Hollywood myth-making, by way of some familiar key figures, notably Joan Didion.