Commonplace books are not so uncommon. Virginia Woolf kept one. So did
Samuel Johnson. W. H. Auden published his, as did the poet J. D.
McClatchy. E. M. Forster's was issued after his death. The novelist
David Markson wrote terse and enveloping novels that resembled
commonplace books; they were bird's nests of facts threaded with the
author's own subtle interjections. For fans of the genre, many prize
examples have come from lesser-known figures such as Geoffrey Madan
and Samuel Rogers, both English, who issued commonplace books that are
notably generous and witty and illuminating. These have become cult
items. The literary critic Christopher Ricks said about Rogers that,
although he may not have been a kind man, "he was very good at hearing
what was said."
-- Dwight Garner. Garner's Quotations: A Modern
Miscellany [preface] (2020).