Research scientists at the University College, London, have published a paper exploring why that “old book smell” is so appealing. “omgg i LOOVE that old book smell,” one of the scientists said. “it just smells so good, like there’s nothing really like it. i also like how new books smell but its different.” Another scientist elaborated: “THIS IS WHY EBOOKS ARE NEVER GOING TO TAKE OFF. Fuck your Kindle. Fuck your iPad (seriously). There is NO substitute for that old book smell.” The researchers cited a .jpg of film director John Waters overlaid with the quote “We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them” as a crucial text and emphasised that you should especially not fuck them if they don’t have any old books on account of that old book smell
When I open them, most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out between the pages - a special odor of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers. Breathing it in, I glance through a few pages before returning each book to its shelf.
We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like “if”.
Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.
