I love magazines. Love them. One day a few years back, I noticed that my pile of magazines in the corner was getting unmanageable, so I came up with the idea of cutting out the pictures that I liked and recycling the rest. I've been doing it ever since.
I have fun with my Inspiration book. Sometimes I make little collages and other pages are sentimental. Mostly, it is full of images that strike me in some way.
I have this daydream about my book. It is that someday some famous designer will move to Marysville (yup, it's a daydream) and they will become great friends with me and want to decorate my house. I will be able to pull out my book and say "this is what I like" and I will have the most amazing, unique house!
I do think it's important for people who are artistic to keep something like this. It helps us to understand what our true aesthetic is. Before I started keeping this book, I really didn't know that I was such a fan of muted colors (blue in particular) and that I loved primitive pieces and things that remind me of the Heartland so much.
So that's a little look into my Inspiration Book. If you don't already have one, start one of your own. Over on Bloom there is a great post about her scrap books. Get thee a book and start to paste!