Lennox, Nancy Drew and the Mystery of Books
My grandson, ever the explorer (a very prevalent trait for toddlers) holding a Nancy Drew 1932 copyright edition from my collection. He is only 17 months old and cannot read the text but seems to be enthralled with the set of them. He carefully takes them one by one and stacks them on the floor and then replaces them back to their original place on the bookshelf by my bed. As he grows older, he may never read the contents of these books, but a subliminal memory may remain with him. Some day he may wander through a library, museum, or used bookstore and inhale the fragrance of that particular year of that specific paper and ink that was used for publishing that particular Nancy Drew edition and it will stir a vague memory of books he used to play with as a child in grandmothers’ bedroom.
And who of an older generation doesn’t remember the nostalgic, somehow comforting scent of the “ditto machine” with its purple ink, used in schools for printing out lessons and information. Books no matter what the subject have their own fragrance according to the era they are printed in. The use of various papers and inks of a specific time period and the aging of time itself creates its own essence as inspiring as the content they hold. When I open a book, inhaling the scent of its history, like the rings of a tree’s life found within its trunk the book will whisper its age and invite me in to explore