Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Sigh 
Seriously, why would anyone smell a book? Books are about words... you read 'em. If you want an olfactory experience, pick some flowers or visit a farm.
Feeling paper, smelling paper... all of that is just habit and familiarity talking. There's nothing great about the feel or smell of processed tree pulp! You're feeling and smelling more chemicals, bleaches and petroleum products than vegetable matter! You might as well be sniffing glue.
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You couldn't be more correct. Smells are very powerful memory triggers. As it happens, certain kinds of paper glues instantly remind me of the primary school I attended in my happy childhood days, gasoline reminds me of when my whole family hit the road for the summer holidays, and moldy paper reminds me of my grandfather who used to lend me his old books, and whom I loved dearly. To me, it's an integral part of the pleasure of reading. It's not just about words.
Nasty smells to you, lovely smells to me; it depends on what you associate them with. I'm fairly sure a great many people of my generation associate the smell of books with lovely memories of reading by the fire in the winter, or stealing reading time at night in the attic as a kid, etc.
Perhaps today's kids are forming long-term memory associations between happy reading times and that distinctive smell of brand new electronic equipment that's been packaged in polystyrene for too long. To me, that smell is nasty, but to them, it might turn out to be the smell of their childhood in 20 or 30 years, who knows...