There are similar bookshelves scattered throughout the house, some are considerably tidier than these, for these are my cookery books, my best loved books, frequently browsed and greatly enjoyed. Every now and then my inner librarian takes over and sort them out. They soon revert to a more comfortable relaxed condition.
I used to attend book auctions and that is where I first came across a book which set me off in collecting old cookery books. It is handwritten and took me quite a while to decipher. That book remains one of my favourites. It was written by a vicar's cook and is simply a hardback exercise book which was discarded by one of the vicar's daughters, back in the mid 1850's, taken over by Cook and filled from cover to cover.
There are family recipes, recipes from friends, several methods for dealing with enormous hams with various methods for curing them. Best of all, there are lists of the quantities of food which were used to prepare Easter and Christmas parties for the village school, as well as lists of the pickles, jams and preserves in the pantry. Wonderful stuff!
However, this is a post about books, not just cookery books.
I suffer from one great disadvantage when it comes to books. Unlike many other people I intensely dislike the smell of them. I don't mind worn and grubby books, but anything more than just a whiff of old book smell really puts me off.
These days I tend to buy secondhand books from abebooks, amazon, or ebay. I love trawling around, tracking down an obscure title, or tripping across a book which is on my wish list. Generally I prefer to buy worn and well used old volumes, not only are they less expensive but they also have more character.
No matter whether the books have been gently used or have been used and splashed, they all have to pass the sniff test before I can read them.
Those which fail have to be put to one side; sometimes all that is required is that they spend a few days in a warm dry room. Other books have a stronger smell and that calls for stronger action. A dish of non-scented cat litter is placed into a box, along with the offending book, and then they are left for a week or two. The cat litter absorbs the smell, but do take care not to use a scented litter because then you end up with a scented book and that is possibly worse than the original. A similar result can be obtained by using a dish of bicarbonate of soda and a box.
If any smell does still linger after the treatment, I leave the book face up and open to finish airing off.
As I type this I can imagine some people will be thinking what a fuss about nothing. Indeed, for some people, the smell of an old book is half the pleasure.
My sensitive nose has been the bane of my life since childhood, it often got me into trouble. Unfairly, in my opinion. I only spoke the truth!
What about you? Do you like the smell of old books?
