Why do old books smell? [video]

I've heard the term biblichor used as a name for the smell of old books. This is derived from the words Biblos: book Ichor: the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of gods

This was inspired by the term petrichor.

This post/page is simply a link to a 2012 video with the answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInTfrDnA

Basically, a combination of chemicals in the paper + ink causes the smell, as the acidity in the old paper decays it.

This post needs (2012) in the title, or in my opinion, deletion, since there is not much to discuss.

"Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go". - Faber, the retired English professor in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

The scent of old books always makes me think of this quote.

I play a number of old musical instruments from around the 1920s/1930s; diatonic accordions and a concertina. The construction of the bellows is not dissimilar from that of older books, as they're made of cardboard, leather, and hide glue. Interestingly the accordions don't really have much of a smell (except one which has cedar reedblocks, which is delicious), but the concertina smells absolutely fantastic and honestly it's a huge part of the instrument for me. If I haven't played it in a while it's one of the first things I notice again when I get it out, and my girlfriend regularly mentions how great it smells as well.

Not a huge surprise that we both love physical books as well :)

Original source:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/04/wh...

New books do, too. It is interesting how one can tell just by its smell, approximately how old a book is. To me, new ones smell more like paint (probably the ink), while older ones I can only describe as "book" --- it's certainly a distinctive smell.

Luca Turin explains it really well:

«... Dzing! smells of paper, and you can spend a good while trying to figure out whether it is packing cardboard, kraft wrapping paper, envelopes while you lick the glue, old books, or something else. I have no idea whether this was the objective, but I have a few clues as to why it happened. Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good-quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us».

It's not just old books. Even those just a couple of decades have this too. I recently ordered a second-hand copy Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance after misplacing my own, and it also has that peculiar smell - I love it.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19300801 from a couple days ago for a similar discussion on a different article.

I guess I never attributed the smell to old books so much as certain sections of certain libraries. But in retrospect it's obvious!

One I always like is X-ray film library. They smell like salt and vinegar chips.

I find myself to be somewhat allergic to old books. The older they become the more my nose runs when I spend time too close to them. It'll start slowly until eventually I get a full on sinus attack.

What's funny is some people complain that ebook don't have that smell

Personally, that's a pro for ebooks

fousty smelling.. decomposition.. oils.. dust.. food.. thats my guess before reading.