[kennyc]

Why do old books smell?
Posted by GrrlScientist on May 2, 2012

SUMMARY: That old book smell brings back so many memories, but what creates that smell?
Every time I catch a whiff of that special old books smell, I am transported through time and space to the cool welcoming basement of The Strand Bookstore in New York City, where I spent many hot humid summer afternoons, searching for some used book I've never seen nor even heard of, or sitting on the cold concrete floor, reading. The smell of old books isn't pleasant, exactly, but it is unmistakable -- and powerfully evocative.

"A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness," writes an international team of chemists from University College London (UCL) and the University of Ljubljana (UL) in Slovenia in their scientific paper (doi:10.1021/ac9016049).
"[T]his unmistakable smell is as much part of the book as its contents."

But what is the source of that smell?

Basically, a book is made of organic materials -- a variety of different papers and inks, as well as glues and fibers used to bind the book together. These organic components react to heat, light and moisture in the environment and with the chemicals used to make the book itself. Specific odours are the result of the particular blend of volatile compounds released by the sum total of the book's organic materials. These odours also include those contributed by outside influences encountered by the book during its life -- influences that impart the familiar stench of old cigarettes or cigars that is often associated with old books, for example.

That old books smell is the smell of death.
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More:

http://blogs.nature.com/grrlscientis...ks-smell-video