You first spied each other at the library, or the indie bookstore, or over a rack of yellowing hardcovers at a second-hand¹ store. The attraction is undeniable. It's time to make a move. Entice² your beloved by smelling like the thing he or she most desires. Make yourself smell like a book.

不少人在图书馆一见倾心，或者在独立书店，或者在二手书店的一堆泛黄色的硬皮旧书旁。这是一种无法抗拒的吸引力。现在你可以更容易创造机会了。用气味给那些爱书的心上人致命一击：让你自己闻起来就像一本书。

"Book smell" is now a thing in the perfume world, like vanilla³ or sandalwood. In the last few years, dozens of products have appeared on the market to give your home or person the earthy scent⁴ of a rare book collection.

跟香草和檀香一样，“书香”现在真的成为了香水世界的一员。在过去几年中，市面上已经有了几十款让你或者你家变得书卷气十足的香水。

Sweet Tea Apothecaries⁵ sells Dead Writers Perfume, which promises to evoke⁶ the aroma⁷ of books old enough for their authors to have passed to the great writers' retreat in the sky. Perfumer Christopher Brosius's "In the Library" product line makes your home and body smell just like that. The high-end fragrance⁸ Paper Passion claims to capture the "unique olfactory⁹ pleasures of the freshly printed book," though for roughly $200 per bottle it's a lot cheaper to just buy a freshly printed book.

“甜茶药房”就在出售“死去的作家香水”，它承诺可以让使用者感受古老书籍的气息，带领你跟天堂里的已故作者作神交。调香师克里斯多夫•布罗修斯出品的“在图书馆里”系列香水可以让你的家和身体跟图书馆一个味。高端香水“纸之激情”声称这款香水复制了“刚印刷好的书本的独一无二的嗅觉享受”，然而这瓶香水的单价是200美元，足以买上一堆油墨味未散的新书了。

The appeal of old books' smell has been studied in depth. Wood-based paper contains lignin, a chemical closely related to vanillin, the compound that gives vanilla its fragrance. As the pages age and the compounds break down, they release that signature scent. An experienced rare book handler can date a volume by scent alone, according to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

人们曾经深入研究过旧书的气味。木浆做成的纸含有木质素，一种跟香草醛相关的化学物质，香草的香气主要来源于这种化合物。随着纸张变旧，化合物开始分解，它们就会散发出那种标志性的味道。根据国际古旧书商联盟的介绍，有经验的藏书者甚至可以嗅一嗅气味就知道书的年代。

Furthermore, scent is strongly tied to memory. Just as the scent of sunscreen or fresh-cut grass can suddenly evoke memories of childhood summers, for the bookish among us the scent of old manuscripts recalls pleasures like reading an old classic, or scouring¹⁰ a library or used bookstore.

不仅如此，这种气味还跟记忆紧密相连。就像防晒霜或者刚修剪的草坪的气味可以突然唤起童年夏日的记忆一样，旧书卷的气味同样会让爱书的我们联想到阅读一本经典好书或者泡图书馆或二手书店的经历。

There's also the nostalgia¹¹ element. The paper used for books today contains much less lignin than that of old volumes. That reissue of Hemingway is never going to smell as nice as a first edition, no matter how long it stays on your shelf. A book that smells like a book is a relic¹² of how we used to spend time. Decades from now, will it be possible to bottle the scent of "Nights Alone on the Couch With Netflix"?

此外还有怀旧的因素。现在的书籍用纸比过去含的木质素少得多。重订版的海明威选集闻起来肯定没有第一版的气味那么好，无论它们在你的书架上吃了多久的灰。书要闻起来像书，这是人们追忆过去的情怀。也许几十年后，市场上会出现“独自坐在沙发上看奈飞视频网站的夜晚”味的香水。