April 2011
16 posts
Why secondhand bookstores smell good
Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.
Perfumes: The Guide (via)
“I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, “This is what I believe. Finished.” What I believe is alive … and open to growth.”
—Madeleine L’Engle (via elige)
“Show me a computer expert who gives a damn, and I’ll show you a librarian.”
—Patricia Wilson Berger, former president, ALA. Epigraph from This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (via epigraphic)
