By Amy Glover
We鈥檝e written before at HuffPost UK about why hardback books almost always get released before paperbacks.聽
But having recently cracked open a decades-old Austen story, I was left with another literary question 鈥 why do old ones smell so, so good?聽
Well, in a recent episode of聽the behind-the-scenes showbiz podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, co-hosts Richard Osman and Marina Hyde shed light on my query.
Thursday Murder Club author Richard Osman joked: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I signed with [book publisher]聽Penguin. Yeah. Because they promised me the smell.鈥澛
Why do old books smell so good?According to the author, there鈥檚 no intrinsic 鈥渂ook smell鈥.
鈥淚 had a chat with some of the production people at [publishing company] Viking… and they said a number of things,鈥 Osman continued.聽
鈥淭he smell has almost nothing to do with the paper that is chosen…聽The paper itself doesn鈥檛 have a strong smell.鈥澛
Instead, he said, stronger paper scents happen as the sheets degrade, which is why an 鈥渙ld book smell鈥 is so distinctive.聽