Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there’s something missing from your reading experience?
Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don’t smell right?
If you’ve been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you’re not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don’t compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book.
But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.
That’s from the front page of the Smell of books website. There are 5 scents: Classic Musty, New Book Smell, Crunchy Bacon Scent, Scent of Sensibility and Eau, You Have Cats. Before you get worked up about how silly the whole thing is, bear in mind that they were launched on April 1st, 2009 by Durosport Electronics (which unless I’m mistaken, is one of several web adventures spun off from the TV series The Office) and recalled later that same day.
Many thanks to Mitali for the link! There was also a link in the article I posted a link to yesterday but I had missed it.
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Is there something wrong with me if I want to smell these anyway?
LOL…I was sort of disappointed when I realized the whole thing was a joke.
This debate over the sensual and tactile sterility of ebooks has been going on for a decade, and I doubt it will ever go away, along with issues of scribbles, dogears, and marginalia…..BUT …. The fragrances they list are pretty funny though. They are missing the best ones: bubblebath (wet book)….chocolate and wine and kleenex….and, of course, sand and suntan oil. The “You have cats” is pretty funny.
Yes, sand especially…I always love pulling a book off a shelf and having a few grains of sand fall out.
::slaps self upside the head:: THAT’S what’s been missing from my reading experience – fragrance! No wonder it did not seem quite fulfilling. All I really needed was the scent of crunchy bacon and cats!
LOL —too funny ! It’d have to be ‘ Scrambled Egg-Beaters and Coffee ‘ since that’s what I always have with my e-book in the morning…’Constant Comment and Catonthelap’ scent for afternoons with the e-book. Oh, then they could make them REALLY expensive so I’d lemm after them even more….
Scrambled egg-beaters: no, please!
sigh, I’m afraid so…but with ham…
Lol! Is there anything that isn’t enhanced by the smell of crispy bacon?
Yep. Pregnancy.
LOL you got that right! oh lord, the memories! uck!
HA!
Robin, I was also very disappointed when I figured out it was joke. I was prepared to send some to my librarian friends who are being lured over to the dark side that is the Kindle.
I would also add to the lineup of scents already proposed a fragrance called “overdue library book”; it would contain accords of “all the money that you owe” and “forbidden no.2 pencil markups” and “guilt for not returning the book or paying the fines.” LOL
-Mitali
What’s really funny is that I do think you could sell these! Not to spray on a real Kindle, presumably, but still.
Ha — I’d totally buy those scents!
Librarians using Kindle, though? That’s kind of rendering yourself obsolete or irrelevant, no?
not to forget a “hint of the copier”, where you spend some more money because you did not have a look at a book several weeks it was on you shelf. so add some “guilt and fear you might copied the wrong pages”-scent to it.
ahhh, I love the smell of new book and loathe old books. really.
my best friend buys old books and smells on them… without words.
hahaha *snort* These comments by NST-ers are as amusing as the post.
As always
I think I’m clueless–I get the “Scent of sensibility” pun, but I’ve no idea what that’s supposed to smell like. Rosewater? Lavender?
And they really needed a “Leather Bindings” scent.
Agree!
After all these years, I still don’t think I’ve ever handled — much less read — a book with the much-touted leather binding.
As I was a child we had a really old and much loved fairytale-book. It smelled a bit rotten but we called it “smelling like fairytales” . So I would add “Eau de fairytale” to the list.
They could also have a “Heavy Smoker” scent. I don’t smoke (anymore) but when I borrow books from smokers or get them back after lending them out, I kind of like the way they smell. And then I sneeze!
So true! And a little-known variant, “Books you took to work while waitressing” — those smell like smoke & old fry grease.
I do think the concept is pretty hilarious. Thanks for the laughs. I think I will be a fogey who forever resists the Kindle, but you never know. I read “The House of Mirth” on a palm pilot as an experiment and it wasn’t my thing, though it wasn’t *that* bad, I guess.
That’s how I felt about the iPod at first, but now I have one & can’t live without it. Kindle is too expensive though!
Just a little comment….most of our library patrons who want ebooks, e-audiobooks, audiobooks, kindles, et al, are hardcore commuters who need some brain release or entertainment, and in a very compact and choice filled format. The same goes for the visually impaired. We have patrons who use multiple formats to get all their reading in. The rest of most everyone else prefers regular old books for a variety of reasons. — I prefer to do most of my reading these days on fragrance blogs,
. And, btw, if you are reading this blog or any other on your hand-held device, you are basically doing the same thing as someone who reads on a kindle.
That’s mostly how I use my iPod — to listen to podcasts & audio books in the car. I do use it for music too, but not quite as much.
I got excited! I love the way the new books smell, lol. Too bad it was an April joke.
LOL…maybe they’ll eventually see the real commercial possibilities. Meantime, the website is a hoot.