Somewhere - i don't remeber - Bradbury describes the smell of a books in the library. Maybe that was the novel, or an essay. Can anyone remind me?

Thanks!

(I have some American Bradbury books. They smell in a different way, than Russian! Did you know? Different one smell differently...)

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http://immersion.raybradbury.ru

Could be from Ray Bradbury-An American Icon, the video. I have my copy lent out right at the moment, but I know he talks about haunting the shelves of the university library.

Anyone else with the answer?

I recall that Ray wrote a wonderful introductory essay for a book called THE UNDEAD (McLaughlin Press, 1984), which was actually a huge sales catalog of incredibly rare items for a bookstore in Orange, California called The Book Sail. The essay was about books and libraries. In it, I believe Ray described the smell of old books. I have no idea, though, if this is the book you are looking for.

elron, I have had a chance to pull my copy of THE UNDEAD. Ray's introductory essay is called, "Foreward: A Journey of Books." In it, he talks about the idea of making a documentary on a library or antiquarian book shop, or even owning such a shop one day. I will quote a small portion of the forward, which discusses the "smell" of books:

" I would do a whole section of my documentary film on the scents, the smells, the spices of books. For what booklover in the world hasn't smelled a book, taken a great whiff, nose down between the pages, before beginning to read? My earliest memories of books have to do with my nose, and the wonderful slick pages that my earliest fairy tales were printed on. Snuff that in the dark, and castles rise and dragons fire their cannon mouths to fry knights in their tinware."

Ray goes on to say: "I would dearly love to own a bookshop one day with a name like THE CURIOSITY SHOP or THE GREATER MANDRAS, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA SPICE CABINET, and sell curiouser and curiouser antique tales and volumes of scent, aroma, incense, snuff of such peculiar intensity that one deep whiff will sneeze your sinuses clean and clear the attic between your ears so you can move in more junk."

Ray is truly a poet. Wonderful stuff!

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 09-18-2004).]

Thank you VERY much, Richard!!!
I love it.

(i'm not so good in English, but i have read it with on� swallow - words 'whiff-f-f' and 'snuf-f-f' speak by themselves ))

And i also have found something:

"...Charles Halloway, gasping, had turned away to bury his face in the smell of ancient books, the feel of old and comfortable leather, the taste of funeral dust and pressed flowers..."