Old books exert a strange fascination...

[growyourwings]

While looking for some old photo yesterday, I came across another photo I had snapped while on the 2013 Vancon location tour.   I'd forgotten about it.  It literally was taken from the window of the bus as we drove by.  Lucky shot mostly.  (Click on the image below to see full version.)
.♢.

Comments

[fufaraw]

You're right. New books have a distinctive, wonderful smell. But old books--mmmm. There's a scientific reason for the scent--a breakdown of old glue and ageing cloth covers and paper fibers and the scents they release. But I prefer to think of it as the scents of the places the stories between the covers are set, from fabled fairy tales and historic chronicles to biographies of explorers, tales of marine biologists and photographers, mountain climbers, cavers. That scent helps to lure us into tales and places the world over--and even into space.

And it does seem sad that used bookstores--and actual library hard copies--are declining in favor of digital copies. You can't smell a Kindle--well, you can, but it's just not the same!

[growyourwings]

A good friend told me that the ADD that I experience now where I can't sit still long enough to read a book on my Kindle is due to just that, the Kindle. She said she had read that the fact you are holding and touching a book (feeling it, even smelling it) engages more of your senses and tends to keep you reading longer.

I love books. I switched to electronic books years ago. I'm tempted to switch back.

[el1ie]

Such a lovely photo, evocative of times past and treasures yet to uncover.

[growyourwings]

What a great turn of phrase.

Thank you!