Smellabooks next? Textbook site tries e-books with smell stickers

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By David Rothman

As if vidbook romance novels aren’t enough, an e-textbook site is experimenting with musty book smells that emerge when you scratch a sticker.

CafeScribe will snail smell stickers to all e-book buyers after finding, via a Zogby International survey of 600 students, that 43 percent of textbook shoppers find the aroma to be the biggest draw of p-books as physical objects.

“By placing these stickers on their computers they can give their e-books the same musty book smell they know and love from used textbooks—without any of the residual DNA you often find stuck to the pages of used textbooks,” said Bryce Johnson, CEO of CafeScribe in a statement quoted by Reuters.

Used p-books favored over e-books

The same survey also found that six of ten students favor used p-books over e-books. I’m not surprised. DRM and the hassles of reading PDF—scrolling left to right on small screens—can take a lot of the fun out of the e-textbook experience.

Meanwhile, what’s next? E-books that can work with appropriate hardware to create various smells? Smellabooks ahead—so Jane and Jayne can smell the perfume of the heroines of the romances they read?

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