I've been into the synonym finder again. I purchased it a year ago because I was looking to expand my use of descriptive words. But what I really like about it is it's size, there is such a sense of satisfaction in pulling out this chunky reference volume and flipping through the thin onion-like paper. I like pretending I'm doing research for a really important legal trial or I've found an overlooked clue to a murder mystery. Once you open it's pages it is hard to put it down. So many variations, you can get lost in the possiblities. I like how it feels to hold a really well bound book in your hands, the smell of the ink, the ability to lie it flat, the feel of the paper. Working in bookstores for most of my life (before illustrating) I acquired a really strange skill. At one point I was able to identify a publisher by smelling a book (at that time most publishers used the same printing houses, I don't think this is the case now). It became kind of a party trick we would do for fun in the stock room and I got pretty good at it. Kind of like wine tasting, only instead of fruit bouquets the books have smells like wood, plastic and solvent. Have you ever noticed that the smell of a favourite book becomes a perfume that soothes and energizes you at the same time? Pulp fiction has an aroma all it's own, cheap newsprint and ink, but inticing all the same. It reminds me of the beach, sleuthing, and vampires. I quite enjoy the smell of my moleskine journals (glue and paper sizing), it's the smell of new ideas , jotted quotes and line drawings. Or sometimes it smells of late night brainstorming and insomnia. Penguin books always smelled of time past and school. J.I. Rodales Synonym Finder smells strongly of the plastercine we used as kids. Do you have any book smell associations?
prospectus, n. 2. plan, outline, design, sketch, draft, roughout; syllabus, synopsis, digest, brief, summary.
As promised an excerpt from the show:
| Random Quilt Series
As an artist I am drawn to paper as a medium because it is such a natural and overlooked part of our daily existence. We are surrounded by a variety of popular media in the form of magazines, ads, mail, newspapers, ticket stubs, flyers, etc. Most are eventually discarded or dismissed as garbage. I am compelled to take some of these elements and recreate the context by using them purely as a textural element or a spot of colour (transforming the mundane into a thing of beauty). What emerges is akin to the old fashioned method of quilting, taking used, discarded pieces of clothing, cutting them up, and arranging them into various patterns. This quilting influence was inspired by my Grandmother who came from Newfoundland to Toronto sometime in the 1940's. With her she brought a variety of skills including sewing, baking, rug hooking, knitting. All based in using materials that were readily available. I can recall being amazed as a child when a pair of old nylons were transformed into the brown stripe of a colourful rug. On another occasion several outgrown dresses became material for a large, colourful quilt. |
anecdote: My Dad was perusing my amazon wishlist looking for gift ideas. He phoned me and asked, "Do you REALLY want Harry Potter 5 en francais, and the latest Rod Stewart?" Ack! Definitely not. It seems that my wish list was linked incorrectly and some other nasty (read: commercially motivated) list put in it's place. I decided to inlclude the list on my site not as a way to ask for gifts but because it is a way of gaining insight into a person's world/interests. Good thing my Dad knows my taste or I might have gotten a big shock on X-mas morning!
Posted by kerismith at December 04, 2003 11:19 AM... and don't you just love running your hand across the pages, don't you just love the feel of paper ( ??? )
Posted by: naomi on December 6, 2003 04:45 PMI can so relate to this. As a child we did not have a lot of expendable income....so a lot of my books came from yard sales and library sales. I can still remember the musty old smell of the books I read that one particular summer of awakening....picking up an old book transports me right back.
Posted by: Dianne on December 5, 2003 02:19 PMMy mother is a reprophotographer, I basically grew up with the smell of ink and paper [and photo lab chemicals]. Fresh books always have me think of the busy print houses, while antiquaric books with their smells have me thinking of very old houses and hidden, secret libraries.
Posted by: mademoiselle a. on December 5, 2003 11:41 AMI have a great fascination with the smell of books. They all remind me of something, much the way you described...
For instance, when I recently purchased a new perfume, I associated it with the scent of a new book and while I am not overly fond of the fragrance for any other reason, I like it quite a bit because it reminds me of a good novel and there is nothing I like more than a quality book.
I also noticed the Amazon Wishlist problem when I was using a computer other than my own ... then I found an explanation, (and a solution). Here's the link:
http://www.onfocus.com/index.asp?xml=2003_12_01_past.xml#3376
I'd leave a comment but I'm so worried my own amazon wishlist has been corrupted I have to run and check it!
Posted by: Pioneer Melissa on December 4, 2003 06:09 PMI can't stand the smell of my history book. It is like 10 years old and smells so moldey and old it is not fun when I have to read that thing.
I started noticing book smells becouase I have to be so close to things to read them. I am vissuily impaird so I am like 4" away from the pages it is hard not to notice the smell. I kinda got used to it tough and don't even notice them anymore tough, unless they smell horoble.
Posted by: Joe on December 4, 2003 06:06 PMLast year for Christmas my sister (more like best friend) bought me an older hard bound version of The Mists of Avalon. She had bought it months earlier and put a box of insence that she had chosen for me in a bag with the book. By the time I recieved the book (via mail) it had this wonderful mixture of the incense and old book smell.I think everyone knows how a great book can transform you, and make you feel like you are there experiencing everything as it happens, but it was especially inhanced with the combination of the two smells.
Keri:
Your entry reminded me of a habit I picked up from my father. Whenever he goes to a museum, he likes to sidle up to the canvases as close as he can and then smell the paint. The first time I saw him do it, I was horrified, sure we were going to get booted out or locked up.
Then I tried it and discovered that, sure enough, I could detect the odor or ancient linseed oils and turpentine. I got hooked. It makes the paintings seem alive and I can picture the scene, the artist at work, so much more vividly.
You can smell paintings from the impressionists on best. I get caught about 1/3 of the time but have always managed to talk my way out of trouble. So far.
Hi Keri,
Thanks for such an interesting, inspiring and fun site. I check in every day.
I was transported back to childhood after reading this entry about the smell and feel of books. You described it perfectly as I experienced it as a child, flipping through a bible, I believe it was, with its "onion-like paper" and pretending I was studying something important or reading. This was before I could even read and I'd make up stories and imagine the knowledge I was taking in. The feel and size of the book I liked as well...small but thick and heavy. I notice these days that I do enjoy the sensation of a new or well designed book, the cover illustration, weight and size in the hand but ya know, I hadn't really payed attention to enjoying this experience in some time. Thank you for reminding me!
Hi Keri,
when you do illustrations with black outlines, do you do the color first and then paint the outline over it? Or do you draw the line and then color it in? I enjoy your work and I was just wondering how it is done?
Wow, smoked books! I've never heard of a fondness for those. I also like the smell of old books (which have different nuances), but seem to prefer the newer variety. There is a used bookstore that I frequent that smells of pipe, I always know which books I got from there.
Christene,
I quite like Paris out of Hand (Bea picked it out actually ;) It's causing me to crave coffee like you wouldn't believe.
Hi Keri, I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing your great illustrations. I too have a thing about smelling printer proofs and books -- the first thing we do here at the studio (in my present incarnation, I'm a graphic designer, but I've been an English major and a bookstore clerk as well) is smell the proofs when one of us comes back from a press check. I also divide the world of book-sniffers into 2 categories: those who like old book smell and those who prefer new. I am the latter, but the former claim that they love the slightly midew-y smell. I had an instructor in design school who loved the smell of books that survived a house fire. (Eww...)
Posted by: Matilda on December 4, 2003 01:00 PMI just purchased my moleskine 2004 diary, and I can't wait to fill in the pages with scribbles, notes and ideas. (Also, of course, requisite birthdays and social gatherings.)
Are you enjoying Paris Out of Hand? I think it's a marvelous little volume. I bet Miss Bea would like it, too, seeing as how she went there recently!
xoxo, c.
Posted by: christine on December 4, 2003 12:37 PM