There's a tribute here to new book smell, but not to old book smell? How is that even possible? New book smell is excellent, I will admit, with the sharp, crisp tang of fresh ink and the clean aroma of unwrinkled pages, but old books are unmatched in my mind.
Of course, this is keeping in mind that I am the kind of person who stops as they enter a used bookstore to take a deep inhale of slightly musty, delightfully book-scented air. If my house could smell like a bookshop, I would be happy. Old book smell is unmatched by any other olfactory experience; the scent of aged glue and lightly browned pages, a worn leather cover, it’s just perfect. There's even a perfume maker who has crafted an old book-scented fragrance, In The Library.
New book smell, I suppose, comes in a close second, and this also isn’t to say that I have issues with people preferring Kindles and the like to books. If you prefer smooth plastic and buttons to paper and pages, that’s your call. I approve of the fact that you’re reading in general. But it is an argument that a book, however you choose to experience it, is much, much more than the mental exercise of reading. It's words on a page, a memory in the form of print, true, but it's also a sensory experience that should not be overlooked.