Why do people smell books?
Sometimes anticipation has a scent.
Many people open a new book and smell it before reading a single word. The behavior seems unnecessary. However, reading itself is not the only experience they seek.
The hidden mechanism is Anticipatory Memory. Scent arrives before ideas. It prepares emotions before understanding begins. Because smell is closely linked to memory, the moment becomes richer than the object itself.
This is why old books and new books create different feelings. One smells like discovery waiting to happen. The other smells like discoveries that already happened.
Therefore, smelling a book is not a distraction from reading.
It is often the first sentence of the experience.
Some stories begin long before the first page is turned.
