The Keep

The Ivy Keep began with a simple habit: keeping track of the things found while reading.

A passage worth finding again. A question scribbled in the margin. A thought that follows you after the book is closed.

Over time, those small acts became a practice of their own.

The Practice

There is no right way to keep a reading life. Some things are marked in the book. Others are written down. A page number may be enough. Sometimes a thought needs a notebook. Sometimes all you need is a bookmark waiting where you left off.

The practice of The Ivy Keep follows six simple movements:

Read · Hold · Notice · Reflect · Return · Keep

They aren’t steps or rules. They are things we already do as readers, given names so we can pay a little more attention to them.

The Rooms

The Keep is arranged into three rooms. The Reading Room holds objects that stay close to the book while you read. The Keeping Room is for what you want to write down, save, organize, or find again. The Miscellany Alcove is where the things that don’t quite belong anywhere else end up—useful things, curious things, things we simply wanted to keep.

Objects enter the rooms over time, as do new Volumes and other additions to the Keep.

There is no need to use everything or keep everything. Just keep what matters.

As the ivy twines, what we keep gathers in the pages.