sethp26•3mo ago

I was reading a book on 19th century bindery practices and found out they used to size paper with actual animal glue, not the synthetic stuff.

3 comments

3 Comments

rodriguez.cora3mo ago

That explains the old book smell.

the_nancy12d ago

modern books just don't have that same feel or smell at all" - so true! My friend Kate found this old cookbook from the 1920s in her grandma's attic and it had that exact thick, papery smell. She said the pages were super yellowed and kinda crumbly at the edges, like they'd been baked a little. She tried to flip a page and it literally snapped in half, that's how brittle it was. The binding was this dark brown color and it had these little flakes of something dried on the spine, probably animal glue residue. She kept it on her shelf just for the smell, even though she couldn't really use the recipes anymore.

rivera.keith3mo ago

Yeah, that old book smell is a whole vibe. @rodriguez.cora is right, it's totally from the materials. I found a first edition from like 1880 at a garage sale and the pages felt totally different, way more cloth-like and stiff. You can really tell they used the animal glue because it yellows in a specific way. Modern books just don't have that same feel or smell at all.