Patrick T. Reardon asks What’s in a book?: ”
I suspect many readers enjoy the olfactory experience of reading.
Just as each book has a certain heft, a certain way it feels in your hands, each book has its own aroma — a kind of incense in the midst of which the thoughts, insights and scenes, depicted by the words, exist.
Given all the talk about the future of book publishing, that brings to mind a question: Do e-books have a smell?”
Demeter?
Didn’t Demeter fragrances have a scent called Old Library at one time? I looked on their website and couldn’t see it.
Rupert Giles
(from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season one: “I Robot, You Jane“)
Ms. Calendar: Honestly, what is it about them that bothers you so much?
Giles: The smell.
Ms. Calendar: Computer’s don’t smell, Rupert.
Giles: I know! Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a, a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences… long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and, and, and, and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, is, uh, it… it has no, no texture, no, no context. It’s, it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then, then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um… smelly.
The awful truth
Hey, Wal-Mart plans to market a special DVD player that will emit appropriate scents at certain points in specially-encoded movies (I’m not kidding!), and there have been at least two or three attempts to market Scent Peripherals, fortunately dismal failures. So, you know, an ebook COULD have a scent…but I’m not sure it’s such a hot idea.