Hello friends, while I know it is spooky season, I don’t feel particularly interested in spending time thinking about frightening things just now. Sorry to disappoint. I do promise that the next book I write will feature lots of horror-adjacent conversations without actually being a spooky story. The main character, Cat Morland, will have a thing for horror movies. It will be super fun. Can’t wait for you to meet her.
Well, I guess it will be a long wait. That book isn’t due out until October of 2027. By then, maybe books will be beamed into your brain directly or there will be a way for you to buy a hologram version of Ada as she narrates it. It seems like a huge leap, but could anyone in 2004 imagine the iPhone which came out in 2007?
While technology is cool, and I work with it every day, and having digital and audiobooks available by simply tapping on a screen is amazing and it saves so much space, I still have a soft spot in my heart for physical books. While some of you may have watched my unboxing videos, and those of my Comics Lit Vol 1 friends on social media, the one thing I didn’t share is that right after the book was unboxed and the video was done, I opened the book and I smelled it. I remember doing it. I will forever remember it. Of course, I should remember it, I was opening a book I wrote, or had a hand in creating, but the urge to smell it actually was a good one because it was that act that will be sure to keep things on lock in the old brainpan forever.
Research has shown, and this isn’t “I’m going to do my own research” by checking out my uncle’s social media feed nonsense, but actual research done by the National Institute of Health, Harvard Medical School, and many other credible valid, facts-based sources have proven that memory and scent are stored in the same part of our brain. This explains why whenever you smell something you don’t like, you have a visceral reaction because you got sick when you ate that thing, or were bitten by a wet dog, or had a bad hair coloring experience.
Science is cool. As of now, all of my books smell the same. They are manufactured to do so. The pages are treated with certain chemicals to make the paper have a different texture that makes the pages slightly water resistant. Not waterproof, nor coffee proof as my copy of The Universe Versus Alex Woods can attest. I had to buy the library a new copy. New books are clearly new. They are made in a way to make sure that they don’t bloat up in a humid house or library, and to last for centuries. Still, we know from the moment we take a whiff that the book isn’t a century old. New bookstores smell different than used bookstores. They just do.
If you got your hands on or nose in a book that was printed before the 1840s, it would have a different smell than a book printed in the early 1900s because those other books were actually printed on paper manufactured from cotton, not wood pulp. Regardless of the kind of book you are smelling or the source material of the book, the thing you are actually smelling is the breakdown of all of those chemicals which, because books are, for the most part, made from organic matter, is pleasing to our brains, which are also organic matter. There is even a term for it. Bibliosmia is the smell of old books. I am a bibliophile, who is pleased to experience bibliosmia. Science for the win.
What do you prefer? Old book smell or new book smell? What is the oldest book you own? What does it smell like? I have a pocket edition of The Scarlet Letter that was printed in 1893. It smells a bit like smoke, but not in a bad way. In a pleasant campfire way, not in a burn-a-witch kind of way but, you know it is a book by Hawthorne, so it could be that it was done on purpose or I am just tricking myself.
Notes From My Bookshelf
Dame Judi Dench may be losing her sight, but she hasn’t lost her wit, charm, or her ability to remember every line of Shakespeare she’s ever uttered, as well as plenty that other people have said in her presence. Her new book Shakespeare, The Man who Pays the Rent is part memoir, part literary criticism, and all glorious. Fans of The Bard will want this, but I suspect folks who are not that into him, will maybe want to revisit some of his plays after reading this.
I recently reread some of The Bard myself. Henry IV Part I is still my favorite history play of all, but Henry IV Part II and Henry V are exquisite. While these are part of a bigger story, of 8 plays, this trilogy is just glorious.
I took the time to reread True Grit. If your only experience with this is the movie with John Wayne, you are missing out. If your only experience with this story is the movie with Jeff Bridges, you almost read the book as that movie is so good. Still, you should give the book a try. Rooster isn’t the main character after all. Maddie Ross is one of the greatest reliable narrators of all time.
Notes From My Keyboard
Well, due to some crazy weather and other life events, I’ve not done a lot of original writing, but I did get the edits back on Universal Truth, book three of the Austen Chronicles. Those are completed and sent back to the publisher. Reading it made me excited and emotional. I really get wrapped up in the lives of my characters.
Now we wait for the cover reveal sometime in the spring and then the book comes out next year. I’ve decided since we’re all friends here, I would share the blurb with you so you, too, can be excited and emotional.
Sometimes, being overlooked allows you to be seen more clearly.
Everyone thought they knew everything there was to know about Mary Bennet. The quiet, bookish, middle daughter certainly didn’t have anything going for her. While her beautiful and talented sisters did great things, everyone assumed she would spend all of her days locked away in her parents’ library.
One day, an old family friend arrives and gives Mary hope. There is a small, elite college that offers full scholarships to five special people each year. To apply, Mary has to admit that her family, whom she loves, might be holding her back even though they mean well. Can she muster the courage to walk away from everything she knows for a world that might not understand her?
This modern-day reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice tells the story of one young woman’s relentless search to find and live her own truth.
If you haven’t yet, could you please reach out to your local library and ask them to buy a copy of That Other Dashwood Girl and Comics Lit Vol 1 and while I know it sort of goes against the theme of this essay could you ask them to add it to the library apps too? I would really appreciate it.
Thank you for being a subscriber.
ARF
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