You first spied each other at the library, or the indie bookstore, or over a rack of yellowing hardcovers at a second-hand¹ store. The attraction is undeniable. It's time to make a move. Entice² your beloved by smelling like the thing he or she most desires. Make yourself smell like a book.

 

不少人在图书馆一见倾心，或者在独立书店，或者在二手书店的一堆泛黄色的硬皮旧书旁。这是一种无法抗拒的吸引力。现在你可以更容易创造机会了。用气味给那些爱书的心上人致命一击：让你自己闻起来就像一本书。
 

 

"Book smell" is now a thing in the perfume world, like vanilla³ or sandalwood. In the last few years, dozens of products have appeared on the market to give your home or person the earthy scent⁴ of a rare book collection.

 

Sweet Tea Apothecaries⁵ sells Dead Writers Perfume, which promises to evoke⁶ the aroma⁷ of books old enough for their authors to have passed to the great writers' retreat in the sky. Perfumer Christopher Brosius's "In the Library" product line makes your home and body smell just like that. The high-end fragrance⁸ Paper Passion claims to capture the "unique olfactory⁹ pleasures of the freshly printed book," though for roughly $200 per bottle it's a lot cheaper to just buy a freshly printed book.

 

The appeal of old books' smell has been studied in depth. Wood-based paper contains lignin, a chemical closely related to vanillin, the compound that gives vanilla its fragrance. As the pages age and the compounds break down, they release that signature scent. An experienced rare book handler can date a volume by scent alone, according to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

 

Furthermore, scent is strongly tied to memory. Just as the scent of sunscreen or fresh-cut grass can suddenly evoke memories of childhood summers, for the bookish among us the scent of old manuscripts recalls pleasures like reading an old classic, or scouring¹⁰ a library or used bookstore.

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