Archive for November 23rd, 2009:

As the digital revamp of our reading lives surges remorselessly forward, defenders of “the old technology” inevitably cite the tactile, or sensuous, quality of paper books as a pleasure that cannot be quantified, much less duplicated by an e-reader. The physicality of a paper book, especially an old one, they say, carries with it a certain mystique, having passed through the hands of generations of readers, its pages becoming weathered and worn.

And what is the most evocative aspect of this sensory allure, the hallmark of a book’s longevity and import? It’s the smell, of course—that musty, dusty, indescribable funk that wafts out of the open tome to remind you: these ideas were forged in another time; you, dear reader, are but a single traveler over the vast continent of human intellectual history.

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