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The ‘feel’ and ‘smell’ of books NOT!
August 30, 2009 | 8:26 am
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By Paul Biba
Here’s part of a post from Dear Author. I must say that I have to agree. It’s beyond me how anyone can say that they enjoy the feel and smell of a cheap paperback. Silliness.
… I don’t want to dismiss a person’s love for the feel of paper, the smell of paper, or even the look of a book. But for an avid reader of genre books, the mass market paperback is a disposable item. It’s print quality is fairly poor on thin paper housed behind lurid covers. The bindings are weak and can barely last more than a few readings. They don’t look good sitting on the shelf and any avid reader ends up storing piles of books everywhere, under cabinets, beds and tables. You have to make a conscious decision, because of the books numerosity, which books get shelf space and which books are tucked away. It’s hard to know exactly what you own.
I would go further to say that most books published today aren’t shelf worthy. Does the mass produced Dan Brown, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele hardcover have any uniqueness? Is there anything memorable about these books? Aren’t the covers just as lurid, just as lacking in individuality as the mass markets. …
Maybe I’ll go even a step further. Given the large number of paperbacks I’ve thrown out over the years, only to buy them again when I want to re-read them, isn’t this a common enough practice to be a form of DRM? There’s no way I could possibly keep all the books I’ve bought in my lifetime and I’ve spent a fair amount replacing them. What’s so different about that with DRM on ebooks? Of course storage isn’t a problem, but I can’t get too excited about DRM on a $4 ebook from Amazon. 90% of those I’d never re-read anyway. As to the expensive ones – that a horse of a different color, I just won’t buy them if they have DRM.
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Comments:
Regarding the smell of paper books: Yes, I too love the aldehydic aroma of a pulp. But as a chemist I also realize the more the pages smell, the more they are decaying.
Yep, the smell of books is the smell of decay. Enjoy it while it lasts. Either way.
As I get older I find I want less clutter, not more; my bookshelves are already full, this is one major reason I like ebooks so much. As to the smell, some well-aged books with a particularly fragrant bouquet have been known to set off my allergies. At the very least, books with a strong smell can detract from the immersive experience of getting lost in a good book.
I’m no fan of DRM; all of my music is totally DRM free. In the past however, obsolescence served as a kind of natural DRM control: music and movies on LP’s and tape based systems had to be replaced with cd’s, dvd’s and now Blue-Ray. As you say, we often have to replace books that we give away or otherwise loose if we want to read them again. Perhaps we are coming to a place where we can keep digital copies of our media virtually forever and just move it to new and better hardware as it becomes available? If so, how does this affect artists? A lot of their income comes from re-sales of their most popular works. Just about everything we buy wears out, breaks, gets lost, etc. and needs to be replaced at some point; should we expect something different from our digital media? Again, I’m no fan of DRM, and I’m not trying to justify it or apologize for it; I’m just wondering where we are headed.
“The smell of books is the smell of decaying paper.”
That should be one of the snappy comebacks every e-book aficionado uses to deflect nay-sayers. (I have a list of 10 others on my website, for anyone who needs some anti-e-book ammunition.)
I’m a big fan of ebooks but I LOVE the smell of and feel of books. I especially love the smell of cheap paperbacks. I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss such things, either. These can cause a strong response the reader. In the words of Giles from Buffy:
“Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell… musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is… it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um… smelly.”
We all know knowledge gained form a computer is just as useful but you get the point.
I beg to differ.
Computers have the wonderful texture of smooth plastic and warm aluminum. They often smell of toasted dust and ozone. They emit a soothing hum and occasionally the soft ratcheting of a hard drive turning, much like the pleasing noises of my housecat when she lounges at my feet. A good keyboard feels tight and reassuring under my fingers. And a properly-set viewscreen illuminates the room, as well as my mind, with a calming glow that reassures me that I am not alone in the world.
Never let it be said that there is no texture, context or feeling to computers. They are the textures of the modern world, no less valid than any era of the past.
A friend of mine once told me how, sometimes when he needed something to read and was going to be moving around a lot, he’d get a paperback of James Clavell’s Shogun and actually tear it into several pieces, making several smaller books out of it that were small enough to stick in a pocket, and throw them away when he was done with them.
At one point I owned three paperback copies of The Catcher in the Rye. I kept picking up used copies in book swaps because I forgot I had it and would think, “Gee, it’s been a while since I read this.” Then I’d read it and remember why it had been a while. I liked it better from youthful nostalgia than the actual reading experience. I’m down to one copy now, and thinking about UBSing it (and a bunch of other old paperbacks).
I mostly keep obscure research and history books and particularly nice copies of favorite books. I moved in May and got rid of seven boxes of books. The boxes were the kind that copy paper comes in, for a size reference.
Chris: Tell your book-savaging page-littering friend to get a PDA!