Is it normal to sniff books

Audience members responded with their own sense impressions. To conservators and historians, smell has always played an important role in assessing the origin and condition of historic books, and in working out how to look after them. But that lack of vocabulary could be about to change, thanks to a groundbreaking project by researchers at UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage, who have devised a way of relating such apparently subjective descriptions directly to the chemical composition of books.

Their study also took them beyond books themselves, to the places in which many of them are read: libraries. The life of individual books also affects their smell: how far they have travelled; whether they have been kept in damp or dry environments.

Oh, I love the smell of books! I think graphic novels smell really nice because they are printed on different paper from other novels. This post! I am particular about the books I like to smell. I like newer pages. That paper smell is euphoric. Love it! I love this! I actually LOVE the smell of new books, but the smell of old books creeps me out.

I mean, who knows what is going on in there, in terms of germs and bacteria and such. The hands that touched them.. Haha, for some reason, I find this really really funny! I love to sniff books, whether new or old, especially if I love the story or the cover, or just… feel like freaking people out.

Nothing brings a smile to my face more than walking into a bookstore that smells of new books and freshly brewed coffee. There is something about that combination that makes all the worries in my world disappear. And trust me, my husband has tested it. Works every time!

Terri M. I, actually, LOVE the smell of books!! I do tend to smell all of my babies here and there. The smells definitely vary, and some smells are way better than others. The goals of the study were to develop a vocabulary-based framework that connected the chemical composition of an odor to the way we sense and describe it. Employing techniques also used by perfumers, the university team captured VOCs emitted by a book published in they found in a used bookshop and collected air samples from the 18th-century library in St.

A gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer were then used to analyze the captured molecules released from the samples. From this data the researchers produced a Historic Paper Odour Wheel, which combined the sensory aspects of the odors and the likely chemical sources of those sensations. Another section of the wheel offers more expansive and sometimes hilarious sensory descriptors, such as mothballs, bourbon, fresh fruit, rotten socks, ash, body odor, caramel, and trash.

The outer ring of the wheel indicates the likely chemical compounds that produce the smells. Chemically, this perceived aroma can be explained by the fact that both chocolate and coffee start as beans, which contain lignin, cellulose, and high levels of furfural, vanillin, benzoic acid, and other compounds also found in decomposing paper.

The book scorpion is not a scorpion at all, though both are arachnids. Bibliophiles of all ages proudly identify themselves as bookworms, voracious readers who devour books with insatiable appetites. Rather, the name generically describes a variety of species of tiny beetle larvae and some species of moths. Adult female beetles lay their eggs on the edges and cracks of books and shelves, and the hatched larvae then burrow down through the paper seeking nourishment and protection.

New adults eventually emerge, leaving pages chewed through with patterns and trails, holey covers, and shelves speckled with little piles of sawdust- or sand-like frass, or excreta. During the first part of the 20th century, scientist and bookworm aficionado William R. Reinicke identified and studied approximately different kinds of bookworms. Naturally, different species have different nutritional and environmental needs. Woodborers, such as the furniture beetle or woodworm Anobium punctatum , the deathwatch beetle Xestobium rufovillosum , and the Mexican book beetle Catorama herbarium , eat paper, cardboard, and wooden shelving.

Others, such as the drugstore beetle or biscuit beetle Stegobium paniceum , survive on, among other things, the starches in natural fibers found in books and boxes. The carpet beetle Anthrenus verbasci feeds mainly on paper and animal products, including leather, horn, wool, hair, dried blood or food, glues, and the bodies of rodents and insects that have died in or among the books.

Spider beetles, moth larvae, cockroaches, and other menaces are compelled to feast on adhesives and treatments that contain gelatin or other animal products. The rooms and furniture that books are stored in and around can also endanger them. Species of wood-boring weevils attracted to damp shelves will chomp right through the books they house.

Hot and humid environments, spaces with poor air circulation, or places prone to leaks, such as basements and attics, are all problematic. Damp paper also breeds microscopic mold, which serves as food for silverfish and book lice.

Termites will bore through and feed on wooden book boards and furnishings. Not all bookworms pose the same kinds of danger. Beetles can produce neat, tiny round holes, frequently along the spines of books; but they are also capable of mazes of destruction that meander through the helpless pages.

Silverfish graze across the surface of paper and cloth, which leads to a scraped appearance or irregular holes. Some pests burrow straight down; some appear to wander erratically, almost calligraphically. The aroma is so popular, perfumiers have tried to capture the essence of a book's smell through candles and even cologne or eau de toilette. But why are we attracted to the way books smell? Specific scents remind us of a place or a moment in time we remember. Specific smells can inform us about the nature, history and physical state of an object—in this case, a book—and the time when that scent was absorbed.

The Historic Book Odour Wheel. Chemistry is essential for understanding why books emit certain scents. These chemicals become activated with a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. VOCs can be detected in increasing amounts as the materials that produce them begin to degrade. Papers will degrade at varying rates depending on the materials of which they are composed.