I came across a beautiful set of children’s classic books at a garage sale, everything from Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Gulliver Escapes from The Collier Press, New York published in 1912.. the year The Titanic sank!… The leather bindings are still perfect and I could tell they have had a good life. The pages are slightly withered but I knew they had been loved and experienced. How cold it must be to read from Kindles and iPads these days for nothing beats the feel and smell of a real, live book in your hands, especially an old one. It reminded me of this.. “Lord! when you sell a man a book you don’t sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night — there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.”

copyright Es-tee Miller

“Old Books Smell Of: A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying muskiness.”

― Chemists of the University College London