What is a recollection
A recollection is an item returning after you have half-forgotten it. Collecting without return is only storage.
You type what is a recollection because the word sounds soft, and you want to know if it means anything.
In a commonplace book, a recollection is an item returning after you have half-forgotten it. The line comes back with its source still attached.
You collect the item while the line is in front of you: the text, its source, and the date. You are its keeper, not its author. A short annotation about why it stayed is enough. Skip the annotation if the line is enough. Later, when you are no longer looking for it, it returns. That return is the recollection.
Search is useful. Tags are useful. Neither is the point. The point is the moment the line finds you again.
If the notebook never brings anything back, you built a cabinet. If it returns without a source, you built a blur. A recollection is return with place.
If that is the search, continue here: How to keep a commonplace book.
Opuss is that notebook, for iPhone. Free on the App Store.
You collect an item. You can add an annotation. Later it returns as a recollection.
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The letter
Read issue 1. Ten we kept this week, and how to keep your own. Or start with how to keep.