Read Online The Voice of the Xenolith by Cynthia Pelman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cynthia Pelman
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what is already in a text book or what is out there on the Net. I know how to do research; my parents are scientists.
Some children are home-educated, and I wish I could have been one of those children. Now that I have been at school for nine years, I don’t actually hate it; I am used to it, but I wouldn’t call it fun, and I definitely learn more from travelling with my family than I learn at school.
I haven’t told you about my special notebooks. They are not school exercise books, and they are not ordinary notebooks, and nobody at school will ever know about them or see them.
Moleskine notebooks are not made of moles and not made of skin. It is simply a weird name which was given to the books by the manufacturer, who got the idea from a travel writer, Bruce Chatwin. Because my family travel so much, we have lots of books written by people who travel as a job, as a career, and Bruce Chatwin’s books are in this collection. I love his book Songlines because he describes how he is searching for something that can’t really be seen: the historical tracks where aboriginal Australians travelled. The tracks are invisible to strangers, but those people in that culture know where they are and they can see something which the rest of us can’t see. They sing the songs in the correct order at the right time and that guides them where to go, where to find water and the important places they need to visit. Their songs are the signs that help them track and find things. And they have been doing this for hundreds of years, so what they see is something from the past which means a lot to them in the present.
When I read Bruce Chatwin’s book I thought that what he describes is something like my search for fossils: you know something must be there, and you know more or less where to look, but it is unseen, and if you are not careful, it can be lost forever.
Anyway, in one of his books he describes using a specific kind of notebook on his travels, which he would buy from a shop in France, before the shop closed down and the notebooks were no longer available. He tells the story about searching for this special kind of book, which had been popular in France and which had been used by famous artists, like Picasso and Matisse. Bruce Chatwin tells how at some stage, someone in France says to him, ‘there are no more Moleskine books.’ Some people think he just made that name up, and it seems that the present manufacturer of these notebooks had the idea of creating some unusual notebooks and calling them by the name which Chatwin used.
You can buy three notebooks shrink-wrapped into a small parcel. These days you can get the covers in lots of different colours, which I don’t like; originally they were available in black, or in un-dyed cardboard, which are lovely if you want to do drawings or doodles on the cover. But I prefer the black ones.
The notebooks have rounded corners and soft cardboard covers. Some of them have an elastic band to hold it closed, and they all have a spine which is sewn, using quite small stitches, and this lets the book lie flat when it is open. And they have a wonderful extra detail: a little expanding pocket inside the back cover where you can keep receipts or tickets or other small paper things you pick up while you are travelling, and that way you can look after the bits and pieces you collect on the way.
So I first saw a Moleskine notebook before I started school, when we were travelling with my dad on his work trips, and my mom bought one when she wanted to teach me to read. I still have those original books of hers, with their letters and beginner reading words in her big neat handwriting. Later, once I knew the letters, she would use the notebooks to write little stories for me, and I would read the stories to my dad in the evening when he had finished his work. My mom is really good at making up stories and I am hoping one day she will find an artist to draw pictures for her stories and she
Some children are home-educated, and I wish I could have been one of those children. Now that I have been at school for nine years, I don’t actually hate it; I am used to it, but I wouldn’t call it fun, and I definitely learn more from travelling with my family than I learn at school.
I haven’t told you about my special notebooks. They are not school exercise books, and they are not ordinary notebooks, and nobody at school will ever know about them or see them.
Moleskine notebooks are not made of moles and not made of skin. It is simply a weird name which was given to the books by the manufacturer, who got the idea from a travel writer, Bruce Chatwin. Because my family travel so much, we have lots of books written by people who travel as a job, as a career, and Bruce Chatwin’s books are in this collection. I love his book Songlines because he describes how he is searching for something that can’t really be seen: the historical tracks where aboriginal Australians travelled. The tracks are invisible to strangers, but those people in that culture know where they are and they can see something which the rest of us can’t see. They sing the songs in the correct order at the right time and that guides them where to go, where to find water and the important places they need to visit. Their songs are the signs that help them track and find things. And they have been doing this for hundreds of years, so what they see is something from the past which means a lot to them in the present.
When I read Bruce Chatwin’s book I thought that what he describes is something like my search for fossils: you know something must be there, and you know more or less where to look, but it is unseen, and if you are not careful, it can be lost forever.
Anyway, in one of his books he describes using a specific kind of notebook on his travels, which he would buy from a shop in France, before the shop closed down and the notebooks were no longer available. He tells the story about searching for this special kind of book, which had been popular in France and which had been used by famous artists, like Picasso and Matisse. Bruce Chatwin tells how at some stage, someone in France says to him, ‘there are no more Moleskine books.’ Some people think he just made that name up, and it seems that the present manufacturer of these notebooks had the idea of creating some unusual notebooks and calling them by the name which Chatwin used.
You can buy three notebooks shrink-wrapped into a small parcel. These days you can get the covers in lots of different colours, which I don’t like; originally they were available in black, or in un-dyed cardboard, which are lovely if you want to do drawings or doodles on the cover. But I prefer the black ones.
The notebooks have rounded corners and soft cardboard covers. Some of them have an elastic band to hold it closed, and they all have a spine which is sewn, using quite small stitches, and this lets the book lie flat when it is open. And they have a wonderful extra detail: a little expanding pocket inside the back cover where you can keep receipts or tickets or other small paper things you pick up while you are travelling, and that way you can look after the bits and pieces you collect on the way.
So I first saw a Moleskine notebook before I started school, when we were travelling with my dad on his work trips, and my mom bought one when she wanted to teach me to read. I still have those original books of hers, with their letters and beginner reading words in her big neat handwriting. Later, once I knew the letters, she would use the notebooks to write little stories for me, and I would read the stories to my dad in the evening when he had finished his work. My mom is really good at making up stories and I am hoping one day she will find an artist to draw pictures for her stories and she
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