You first spied each other at the library, or the indie bookstore, or over a rack of yellowing hardcovers at a second-hand store. The attraction is undeniable. It's time to make a move. Entice your beloved by smelling like the thing he or she most desires. Make yourself smell like a book.
不少人在圖書(shū)館一見(jiàn)傾心，或者在獨(dú)立書(shū)店，或者在二手書(shū)店的一堆泛黃色的硬皮舊書(shū)旁。這是一種無(wú)法抗拒的吸引力。現(xiàn)在你可以更容易創(chuàng)造機(jī)會(huì)了。用氣味給那些愛(ài)書(shū)的心上人致命一擊：讓你自己聞起來(lái)就像一本書(shū)。

"Book smell" is now a thing in the perfume world, like vanilla or sandalwood. In the last few years, dozens of products have appeared on the market to give your home or person the earthy scent of a rare book collection.
跟香草和檀香一樣，“書(shū)香”現(xiàn)在真的成為了香水世界的一員。在過(guò)去幾年中，市面上已經(jīng)有了幾十款讓你或者你家變得書(shū)卷氣十足的香水。

Sweet Tea Apothecaries sells Dead Writers Perfume, which promises to evoke the aroma of books old enough for their authors to have passed to the great writers' retreat in the sky. Perfumer Christopher Brosius's "In the Library" product line makes your home and body smell just like that. The high-end fragrance Paper Passion claims to capture the "unique olfactory pleasures of the freshly printed book," though for roughly $200 per bottle it's a lot cheaper to just buy a freshly printed book.
“甜茶藥房”就在出售“死去的作家香水”，它承諾可以讓使用者感受古老書(shū)籍的氣息，帶領(lǐng)你跟天堂里的已故作者作神交。調(diào)香師克里斯多夫?布羅修斯出品的“在圖書(shū)館里”系列香水可以讓你的家和身體跟圖書(shū)館一個(gè)味。高端香水“紙之激情”聲稱這款香水復(fù)制了“剛印刷好的書(shū)本的獨(dú)一無(wú)二的嗅覺(jué)享受”，然而這瓶香水的單價(jià)是200美元，足以買上一堆油墨味未散的新書(shū)了。

The appeal of old books' smell has been studied in depth. Wood-based paper contains lignin, a chemical closely related to vanillin, the compound that gives vanilla its fragrance. As the pages age and the compounds break down, they release that signature scent. An experienced rare book handler can date a volume by scent alone, according to the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.
人們?cè)?jīng)深入研究過(guò)舊書(shū)的氣味。木漿做成的紙含有木質(zhì)素，一種跟香草醛相關(guān)的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，香草的香氣主要來(lái)源于這種化合物。隨著紙張變舊，化合物開(kāi)始分解，它們就會(huì)散發(fā)出那種標(biāo)志性的味道。根據(jù)國(guó)際古舊書(shū)商聯(lián)盟的介紹，有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的藏書(shū)者甚至可以嗅一嗅氣味就知道書(shū)的年代。

Furthermore, scent is strongly tied to memory. Just as the scent of sunscreen or fresh-cut grass can suddenly evoke memories of childhood summers, for the bookish among us the scent of old manuscripts recalls pleasures like reading an old classic, or scouring a library or used bookstore.
不僅如此，這種氣味還跟記憶緊密相連。就像防曬霜或者剛修剪的草坪的氣味可以突然喚起童年夏日的記憶一樣，舊書(shū)卷的氣味同樣會(huì)讓愛(ài)書(shū)的我們聯(lián)想到閱讀一本經(jīng)典好書(shū)或者泡圖書(shū)館或二手書(shū)店的經(jīng)歷。

There's also the nostalgia element. The paper used for books today contains much less lignin than that of old volumes. That reissue of Hemingway is never going to smell as nice as a first edition, no matter how long it stays on your shelf. A book that smells like a book is a relic of how we used to spend time. Decades from now, will it be possible to bottle the scent of "Nights Alone on the Couch With Netflix"?
此外還有懷舊的因素。現(xiàn)在的書(shū)籍用紙比過(guò)去含的木質(zhì)素少得多。重訂版的海明威選集聞起來(lái)肯定沒(méi)有第一版的氣味那么好，無(wú)論它們?cè)谀愕臅?shū)架上吃了多久的灰。書(shū)要聞起來(lái)像書(shū)，這是人們追憶過(guò)去的情懷。也許幾十年后，市場(chǎng)上會(huì)出現(xiàn)“獨(dú)自坐在沙發(fā)上看奈飛視頻網(wǎng)站的夜晚”味的香水。

Vocabulary

indie: 獨(dú)立的
sandalwood: 檀香
apothecary: 藥劑師；藥房，藥店
olfactory: 嗅覺(jué)的；味道的
lignin: 木質(zhì)素

英文來(lái)源：Quartz
中文來(lái)源：煎蛋網(wǎng)
審校&編輯：丹妮