The Smell of books

Though we have a kindle-clone for travelling, I must admit I do not like reading it and besides one e-reader does not give me the excuse of having a really gorgeous, floor to ceiling, glass-doored wall of bookshelves (pretending to be a really gorgeous Victorian library that I covet). Does it?

I still love real paper books and the lovely vanilla-like smell they develop as they age. (They could sometimes do without the dust though). There is something about cracking open a book and turning the pages, sometimes getting ink on the fingers or sitting in front of one of my bookshelves and trying to decide what to read next. I love trolling through book shops, particularly second hand book shops, looking for a book that catches my eye - a classic, a favourite or something I have newly discovered.

I read recently (online ironically) that you can actually get a perfume that smells like old books! Believe it or not.
http://scientopia.org/blogs/whizbang/2012/12/27/rock-paper-scissors-which-is-a-perfume/
http://www.geekologie.com/2012/07/perfume-that-makes-you-smell-like-a-book.php

There has also been studies into the chemical changes that actually make old books smell the way they do. It results from various volatile organic compounds such as acetic acid, benzaldehyde, butanol, furfural, octanal and methoxphenyloxime, just to name a few.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31235/what-causes-old-book-smell
The research paper can be found at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ac9016049

After the smell of freshly cut grass after the rain, the delicious smell of old books is one of my favourite smells. It stirs up memories and transports me to another world. If you are a regular reader, you will have read my blog on what causes the smell of cut grass (http://offartboard.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/the-smells-of-reminiscence.html ) Now I have yet another  favourite smell to chalk up to 'volatile organic chemicals'. Sigh. But can I resist breathing in deeply when passing the local parklands, or a second hand book store?

Can I?

Probably not.