A digital commonplace book for readers and writers

In an age of endless scrolling and fleeting impressions, within an online world geared towards the shallows and worded overbearingly by human and artificial next-token predictors, the sort of writing painstakingly crafted to show our extraordinary abilities of expression and our unending human endeavour, deserves a home. DOG EARS was born from the observation that readers, touched suddenly, have been marking pages for centuries—turning down corners, underlining passages, and returning to cherished passages again and again for the sort of consolation these provide; sitting for a moment with the grace of aptitude.

We've translated this timeless practice into a digital experience that honors the contemplative nature of reading. Whether you're a student or an aspiring author looking for exercise, a writer collecting inspiration, or simply someone who believes in the power of well-chosen words, DOG EARS provides a tool to capture and cultivate your literary discoveries.

Of course, there is much about literary prose that we can’t celebrate this way, such as the tectonics of story, the buttressing and vault engineering that went into certain plot arcs, the domino time games, the narrative musical chairs, relay races, or framing. DOG EARS showcases the shorter-range craft: that vital analogy, fecund metaphors, rousing punctuation and swingin’ prosody, le mot-plus-que-juste… And we provide opportunity to bring those nuggets together, those dog-eared pages in fond novels and short stories, and to train our ears to the finer stuff, keen as dogs for what is hiding out among the faceless high grass.

We believe that reading is not passive consumption but rather a sort of engagement. Here, you carry passages over from your reading to become part of your intellectual landscape, shaping how you think and express yourself.

The florilegium—a Latin term meaning "gathering of flowers"—lets you arrange your collected knockouts into categories that are meaningful to you. Exercises can help you internalize their intricacies, moving them from your collection into your consciousness.