I often copy into my journal extracts from newspaper and magazine articles. I used to do the same for passages from books but have dropped it as too time-consuming. Here’s something I copied in today from a summer issue, as I try to catch up.

From “The Defense of Poetry,” a review-commentary by Louis Menand on a book called Equipment for Living: On Poetry and Pop Music (by Michael Robbins), in the 7/31/17 New Yorker:

I enjoyed almost all of “Equipment for Living,” but I found Robbins most cle...