Months ago, I posted about my love for the smell of books. I even got the coveted room spray from the CB I Hate Perfume "In the Library" collection as a wedding present from a lovely, wonderful friend of mine. My facebook profile boasts, "If they made old book as a perfume, I would wear it. And new book for going out."I've always known that I was not alone in this - at the very least, my dad is known to open a book to the spine and stick his nose in it, taking deep breaths. But now The New Yorker is featuring the existence of a woman who smells books as one of the top reasons we (well, New Yorkers, and that's not me anymore) love the city. The woman is artist Rachael Morrison, who joked after starting work at the MoMA library that she was "smelling books" all day at work; now, she's making it her mission to actually smell - and catalog - the scent of every book in the MoMA stacks. She's 150 into the 300,000 books that live there.
Seriously, I want that job.
(Original link via Shelf Awareness, December 13th. Photo by Michael Schmelling, from the original New Yorker article).
Yes, I want that job too! I just saw some candles for sale at our bookstore called The Library Collection with scents like "Edgar ALlen Poe" and "Jane Austen" and "Henry James" and more . . . they are all, needless to say, lovely, woodsy, spicy, earthy, papery, and with a touch of lavender, I think.
ReplyDeleteTrish - I've seen those online before. I love the idea!
ReplyDeleteoh, I'm a book smeller from way back. I like all the different book smells except cigarette-- yuck!!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the smell of books! Old ones, new ones, ancient dusty ones. LOVE IT. Perfume would be delicious!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome. I'd take that job in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteI am constantly teased about this at the bookstore where I work! Most people find it funny that I'm forever picking up books and inhaling the smell of them (these are all new books, though I love old books, too), and sometimes I can't help myself doing it when ringing through someone's purchase. I think that might freak them out a little.
ReplyDeleteBut I've been a book sniffer forever. Since, I don't know, birth. Even as a baby I held the books to my face. There is NO better smell. I could be dreading work one day but as soon as I walk in the store, I feel better.
PS. How are you liking The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop? I've given that book as a gift several times!
Lesa - Good point. A smoking home can ruin the otherwise delicate scent of a book.
ReplyDeleteBethany - The CB I Hate Perfume scent linked in the post is AWESOME!
Brenna - Serious job jealousy, right?
Steph - I love that you do it at work as well. I used to work in a bookstore, but I'm more drawn to old book smell, so I didn't find myself sniffing bindings there. And I'm loving Yellow-Lighted Bookshop! Not a groundbreaking classic by any stretch, but thoroughly enjoyable (and quotable) and full of fun little tidbits about the history of the bookstore.
I seriously love the smell of books. I was just sniffing one the other day (my brother's birthday present, which maybe I should have sniffed BEFORE I gave it to him, 'cause I think I weirded him out). And this is just reason #364 why I love reading book blogs: proof that I'm not the only book nut out there! :)
ReplyDeleteI can't thank you enough for telling me about C B I Hate Perfume. It turns out that a little boutique right around the corner from me sells it, and went along and fell headlong in love. She had, sadly, sold out of the In the Library, but had old leather and smoky tobacco on which it's based. I layered them and fell in love! I read the first in Laurie King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, and I smelled like his pipe tobacco! Bliss.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I see you're reading The Thirteenth Tale. It's so much fun to find someone with such similar tastes and bookloving habits!
ReplyDelete