In The Library, a perfume for people who can’t get enough of that “work smell” [thanks scott, via]
Whenever I read, the start of the journey is always opening the book and breathing deeply. Don’t you find there are few things more wonderful than the smell of a much-loved book? Newly printed books certainly smell very different from older ones. The ink is so crisp. I’ve also noticed that books from different periods & different countries also have very different smells. And then there are the scents of different bindings: leather is marvelous of course but I find a peculiar pleasure in musty worn clothbound books as well. Perhaps just a hint of mildew!
I got my archivist mother this perfume for her last birthday, and it really does smell like a library! My mother’s only (slight) disappointment is that she can’t wear it to non-archival situations in the library, because it smells exactly like the library she’s already in, haha. Though, at conferences? she wears it a lot.
It must vary a lot by batch, or something, because I bought a tiny bottle of it, and it just smells … sweet. I guess there’s a kind of leathery hint to it, but it doesn’t smell tremendously book-like, or even library-like, to me. (And, thank goodness, they left out the whole “mildew” thing.)
It does smell nice, I think, but, to set it up in analogy form for you, In the Library : a real library :: Jelly Belly Buttered Popcorn flavored jelly beans : real buttered popcorn. All good things, but the mimicry is imperfect (and way sweeter).
That is all kinds of disturbing… I told my staff at work about this and the question was: is that new books or musty, dusty, smoke-scented return-bin books?
I dont’ know if I want to smell like work on the weekend =D
The idea of this perfume is terribly amusing, but I don’t think I want to wear the scent, imperfect though it may be. Maybe the home spray would be fun…