Ah, the Sweet Scent of Old Books

These days with the prevalence of e-readers and Ipads, real books have almost become artifacts, antiques, anachronisms, which makes me treasure them even more.

The scent of an old book is the reason some people like to linger in libraries and used bookstores. It's not just the musty paper, but the printer's ink, wood and cloth in woven bindings. For old books from my childhood in the 60s and 70s, it's the glossy covers often coated with plastic, the colorful pictures and the nostalgic smell of a thousand classrooms.

There's even a scientific basis for the allure of the old books:

“Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.”
- Perfumes: The Guide

How wonderful! Human beings are just naturally attracted to the sweet odor of books.

I'm a huge fan of the old Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show, and I think it's important to note that from the first season much of the action centered around the library where the kids spent hours pouring over ancient and sometimes crumbling rare books. Rupert Giles, the school librarian, was Buffy's "Watcher," the man who looked out for her as she battled demons and vampire, and eventually became her trusted father-figure. Buffy's best friend Willow was a bookworm, and even though she was also a computer whiz, she usually went back to the stacks for the best hidden knowledge. Later in the series the action moved to the Magic Shop, which strangely was filled with bookshelves, and the library table covered in books became the focal point.


Here's what Mr. Giles had to say about replacing books with computers:

Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a - it, uh, it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible, it should be, um, smelly.