Two years ago I launched “The Shepherd’s Scrapbook” into the blogosphere. It was intended to be a place to serve a few pastor friends with useful quotes I read. It was to be a scrapbook for shepherds. Gauging from emails I receive from pastors who sift through the right-hand categories for sermon quotes, it appears this little blog has been useful as a shepherd’s scrapbook. As I began reviewing books and writing short essays this blog became a lot more.
If you’ve ever seen Jonathan Edwards’s octagonal hexagonal desk, you know he used a number of notebooks and resources in his personal study. But each of his 
notebooks were strategic. He used his blank bible, his collection of miscellanies, and his other notebooks as places to collect his thoughts. Later, he developed these thoughts into sermons and books [see diagram from the Yale works].
Edwards’s vision for the various components of his study is helpful for those of us in the electronic age, who find our personal reflections can become disjointed and scattered into various emails, blog posts, journals, etc. For me, Edwards gives clarity to where this blog fits into my personal growth and reflection.
So as you can see, I’ve decided to change the name of this blog to “Miscellanies.” It is, for me, the empty web space between my blank bible and other projects, a place for me to write about what I learn and learn from your input in the comments.
This blog will continue to be what it is—reviews, essays, a few random pictures and notes, with the overall goal of maintaining a cross-centered emphasis. It will retain the same web address and format.
Thanks for reading!
Tony
Tony Reinke 
Tony,
Thanks a bunch for posting Edward’s “collection of thought” notebook ideas. I have for some time been trying to determine a method such as this.
I’m reading Piper’s “God’s Passion for His Gory” including the Edwards text of “The End for which God Created the World.” I can now see how much of this material must have been assimilated. His philosphical analysis of the purpose of God’s creation must have filled up several notebooks above in more than one category. Terribly dense, but stimulating as I go through the book.
Bill
Are there any pics of Edwards’ Octagonal desk on the web? Google didn’t reveal any, but I’d like to see. Need a trip to old Princeton?
My mistake, it was a hexagon desk. Try page 54-55 of this book for a pic.
T
thanks for the link, brother! btw, i’ve had your blog linked from mine for a while now. and though i understand and can appreciate your new title, i’m afraid it will not generate much interest from those who do not already know you. do you mind if i list your blog as “Miscellanies (a Shepherd’s Scrapbook)”?
Do whatever you need to my friend! It’s pure grace that you link to me in the first place.
Blessings!
T
“grace” . . . that has bore fruit in your life and is reflected in your blog! i am the director of pastoral ministries for our association and am always trying to get our guys to be self-taught (since most are w/o formal training). your site, i think, is especially encouraging in this because of its now-famous cross-centeredness. how better to get guys excited to read and study and grow in a knowledge of Christ, then to constantly point them to the cross?
thanks for your service, brother!
john
[…] Reinke presents Miscellanies, a description of why he changed the name of his blog from the Shepherd’s Scrapbook, posted […]
Being a growing student of all things Edwards would the Yale works be a good place to look more in depth at and learn from his study practices?
The Yale works would be a great look into the study practices of Edwards but at $80 a volume I would consider an affordable alternative in A God-Entranced Vision of All Things in the chapter “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards” by Donald S. Whitney.
I would start here!
Tony
I ended up here when looking for a pdf version of Don whitney’s chapter on Edwards – also recommended by CJ Mahaney. Then it dawned on me – try DesiringGod to see if the PDF of trhe book is available.
Sure enough it is, and you can print the chapter out as a nice booklet in Acrobat Reader.
Just thought I’d share this or anyone else who ends up here looking for it.
[…] habits in light of the example of Jonathan Edwards when Tony Reinke changed the name of his blog (here). The diagram he provided of Edwards’ desk was particularly helpful in thinking about the […]