My husband and I were out antique shopping today. We didn't buy much of anything really, just some linen napkins. He became sucked into an old 1930's book about Freud. It really was a neat book and I tried to talk him into buying it, but he couldn't justify the 15 dollars when we were furniture shopping. This sparked a gravitation towards the book shelves every time we came across them. Well, the one store we went into had rows and rows of books. Along with some furniture we ALMOST bought. We are walking along and he starts making strange faces. "What?" I asked. "I..don't...WHAT is that horrible smell?" "It's the smell of aged books. It's lovely isn't it?" "Oh." He shrugged his shoulders, looked embarrassed and went to the next book rack in search of a gem. Silly boy, hasn't learned to enjoy the air in a used book store. It's like inhaling the intellect of multiple authors at one time and reaching to their soul, if you but open the pages of what they penned years and years ago.
I understand that mindset. Earlier today, I started a thread about old school goods. Many people find this strange, but I love pulling out an old item that's covered in dust. That's when you know it's a relic!
I have a soft spot for old things. I love those books with their yellowish pages and almost faded ink, the fragile covers that are brown and dusty. Ahhh!! True beauty!
I don't mind the smell of old books; I think it's just the fact that they're rotting that gets to me.
I can actually find the smell in old book stores a little icky too, but I love the smell of the books from the library, it's totally different for some reason.
Isn't that smell mold or rot? I think that's what they told me on QI. I normally don't mind the smell, but recently I borrowed a book that clearly hadn't been opened for a long time, and I literally threw it away in horror as the smell reached my nostrils.
We have 2 bathrooms and my wife rarely, if ever went into mine. I took some feed corn, added yeast and 2 cut up heads of cabbage, then let it ferment for wild hog bait and secreted it in my bathroom. A few days later, my wife asked the same question,,,, "What IS that smell?"
Well thank you for that wonderful story.~ On the topic at hand, I love old things. Especially the smell of books. Or new games.
