Wild Things: YA Grown-Up discussion

My name is Jill and I am a mother of 4 children. My daughter is 13 and 3 boys ages 2, 4 and 6.

I grew up reading all kinds of books. Once I was in college my pleasure reading took a nose dive. Since becoming a mom I've read here and there but it's really been over the last 4 years or so that I've lost myself in books on a regular basis. Of all books, it was the Harry Potter series that did it. I love bookstores. I love to just walk into them and smell the scents of paper and binding glue and feel the excitement of so many stories just waiting to be read.

Over the last year or so my sister-in-law and I have become enthralled with the Young Adult literature. My daughter is an avid reader also though our tastes tend to be polar opposites. I love fantasy and sci-fi but she doesn't. I'm looking forward to book suggestions this group will make!!

Welcome Jill, I love new and recycled books, both give my sences a workout. Hope you enjoy this group.

Hi Jill, great intro! Welcome to the group. Reading really is a sensual experience, isn't it? All the senses working at the same time!

Oh, and to sniff a great smelling book is the ultimate joy. Kinda like opening a bag of freshly ground coffee and inhaling - over and over again.

Welcome to the group Jill!

Good analogy, Laura! I don't drink coffee but I love the way it smells. Every time I open the book I'm reading, I just have to take a sniff, unless it's a really stained, nasty looking one from the library or used bookstore. I was just explaining the finer points of book sniffing to my husband last night. He admitted to sniffing a book here and there but I think he thinks I'm crazy to do it to the extent I do.

Imagine if you worked at a brook printers ... you'd be permanently high. Got to admit to being a bit of a closet sniffer myself ... perhaps we should start a separate, breakaway group called goodsniffs?

Hi Jill. Welcome to the group :)

Hi Jill, and welcome. I think it was the Harry Potter series for me too!

Hi Jill and welcome. Apologies for not saying so up front ... got too caught up in the sniffing metaphor. There's some good posts and stuff on here. Have fun.

Malcolm.

Malcolm, I'd love to work at a book printers or a bookstore. If I worked at a bookstore I'd want to shelve all the books so I could take a sniff of every one of them! Goodsniffs is a good idea! I know quite a few book sniffers on here!

Thanks for the welcome! And I would be an active member of goodsniffs. lol I love the creak a brand new book makes when you first open it. In fact, when I'm at the bookstore I often pick up the book at the back of the stack hoping to get one that hasn't been handled yet. The more excited about a book I am then the better it smells. So psychological, I know. (Or just psycho) ;-)

Malcolm wrote: "Imagine if you worked at a brook printers ... you'd be permanently high. Got to admit to being a bit of a closet sniffer myself ... perhaps we should start a separate, breakaway group called goodsn..."


Love it Malcolm!

Beth - I don't drink coffee either, but to sniff is to be in a divine presence. And the grounds are much better sniffing than brewed coffee IMO.

Yes, the smell of coffee grounds and beans is the best. I was doing some deep breathing in the coffee section of Fresh Market yesterday.

I used to sniff Ashley when she came back from Starbucks, she hated how she smelled but I loved it.

Laura wrote: "Malcolm wrote: "Imagine if you worked at a brook printers ... you'd be permanently high. Got to admit to being a bit of a closet sniffer myself ... perhaps we should start a separate, breakaway gro..."

Don't drink much coffee these days - a cup about once or twice - a week, but being a Pom (Australian term for English in case anyone is going to ask) I was a tea drinker and didn't start on coffee until I was 26 and living in South America where they thought making a cup of tea was waving a teabag at a cup of tepid water ... I digress ... but even before I became marginally addicted to coffee I still loved the smell of it. There used to be a place on Oxford Street which roasted it and the smell was maddeningly intoxicating even though I didn't drink it.

Jill wrote: "Thanks for the welcome! And I would be an active member of goodsniffs. lol I love the creak a brand new book makes when you first open it. In fact, when I'm at the bookstore I often pick up the..."

Oh yes, cracking the spine ... it's a sort of chiropractic adjustment for the psyche I reckon.

Laura wrote: "Malcolm wrote: "Imagine if you worked at a brook printers ... you'd be permanently high. Got to admit to being a bit of a closet sniffer myself ... perhaps we should start a separate, breakaway gro..."

Sorry, showing my ignorance here ... what's IMO?

Fiona wrote: "Hah! I thought I was the only one who would take the one from the back of the shelf so not to have the one most handled.

I love the smell of books - I've bought a few purely based on the smell. I ..."

What's that all about? The book sniffing thing. I just told my missus what we're discussing and she laughed: she's a sniffer, too! Is it the new paper or the new ink? Or both? And for goodness sake what evolutionary purpose does it serve? Maybe it's connected with childhood ... my nose certainly worked a lot better then. I bet someone's written a PhD on this one.

Malcolm wrote: "Laura wrote: "Malcolm wrote: "Imagine if you worked at a brook printers ... you'd be permanently high. Got to admit to being a bit of a closet sniffer myself ... perhaps we should start a separate,..."


Sorry IMO is in my opinion.

Re: the book sniffing I think it's a combination of the paper and the ink. The newer the book, the better the smell, I think! Some books do smell better than others, though. I wish I knew where this obsession came from. Until I came to GR I thought I was weird, that I was the only one who sniffed books. I only did it in front of my husband and kids and my kids still think I'm a freak because I do it. My husband only recently started doing it and he doesn't do it very often. He still laughs sometimes when he sees me do it. In any case, it made me feel a lot better when I came on here and saw that lots of people are doing the same thing.

Laura, I never thought of sniffing people who work in coffee shops. I wish I knew someone who worked in Starbucks, LOL. I guess it would have to be someone very close to me though because I doubt just anyone would put up with me wanting to smell them.

I just love that, Fiona!

Beth wrote: "Laura, I never thought of sniffing people who work in coffee shops. I wish I knew someone who worked in Starbucks, LOL. I guess it would have to be someone very close to me though because I doubt..."


Well you didn't have to be close to her to sniff her, lol....Ashley is the UN-me, doesn't really like hugs, etc. so she'd never tolerate that anyway. But the coffee smell would just radiate from her. She'd always change her clothes as soon as she got home, but it'd be in her hair and everything.