Company Launches "Smelly" E-books!

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AnneMarble

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People often say that one reason they don't buy e-books is because they like the smell of books. According to this article, one publisher of electronic textbooks has launched the first e-book with that "musty" smell. If you buy an e-book from CafeScribe.com , it comes with a free scratch-and-sniff snicker that smells like old books!
:ROFL:

What do you think? I think it's wonderful promotional idea. Not very practical, but it will grab headlines. So maybe now Sony will start adding an "old book" smell dispenser to their next generation ebook reader. ;)
 

Jamesaritchie

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Smelly

I've never in my life heard anyone mention lack of smell as a reason they don't buy e-books. Hating to read on the screen is the only reason I've ever heard.

And I know huge numbers of people who hate, hate, hate the smell of an old book.
 

AnneMarble

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I've never in my life heard anyone mention lack of smell as a reason they don't buy e-books. Hating to read on the screen is the only reason I've ever heard.
True, more people complain about having to read on the computer or about the prices and screens of the readers, etc. But I've seen people mention it quite often in discussions on my reader list. Usually what people say is that they like the tactile experience of reading -- they like the feel of holding a book in their hands, the smell of the book, etc. But that tactile experience is really important to a lot of people. They don't see the book as "real" unless it's on paper -- as this is true regardless of the content of the e-book. It could be an e-book edition of the current print best-seller. But it's not "real" to them unless they can hold it and smell it.

And I know huge numbers of people who hate, hate, hate the smell of an old book.
I like the smell as long as it doesn't smell like moldy cigarette-addicted cats with bladder problems. I guess I associate it with finding hard-to-find old paperbacks at a used book store. :)
 

Soccer Mom

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That's hilarious. Smelly books.

To the tune of "Smelly Cat" from Friends

Smelly book, Smell-y book,
How are they printing you?
Smelly book, Smell-y book,
It's not your fault.
 

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I tend to poke my way into various the novel-ish threads here at AW and write a movie-ish response to many of them.

Here I go again:








Back in the 1950's, as a way to compete with the ever-growing threat of television, the American film industry launuched the 3-D movie market. That lasted for only a few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_film

Several 3-D revivals have been attempted since the 1950's, (one flash-in-the-pan revival in the 80's, and now another one is under way at this moment), but for the most part, it was just a dumb gimmick and proved more of a distraction than anything else.




In the 1970's, when movie theatre sound systems began getting very sophisticated, and concert-quality speaker sytems were being installed in threatres, another gimmick was briefly delved into: "Sensurround" where the theatres boasted that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensurround

the sound quality was so intense and so loud that your theatre seat would literally shake. The only real accomplishment was a "rumbling" noise so most of the films shot in Sensurround were disaster films or action films with lots of explosions. The most famous Sensurround film was the not-at-all bad disaster film Earthquake by the famous disaster filmmaker Irwin Allen. Others were Rollercoaster and Midway. This development also failed when it proved too expensive to be bothered with, was limited only to dissaster and explosion films, and with the growing trend toward multi-screen cineplexes, theatre owners with a Sensurround film showing on one screen, and a more quiet film on an adjacent screen, often got complaints from the patrons of that adjacent screen that the rumbling was interfering with their movie.




And then there was the experimental attempt at Smell-O-Vision in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smellovision

which was met by technical difficulties so severe that it was deemd an utter diaster and quickly abandoned by Hollywood after that one and only film employed it. But in 1982, a satirical tribute to the failed legacy of Smell-o-vision was launched in the comedy film Polyester which employed what was called "Odorama."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smellovision#Legacy

Unlike the 1960 debacle of a complex networking of pipes and vents that sprayed smells all over the theatre, movies shot in Odorama handed out scratch-n-sniff cards with the movie tickets. Each card had a complex pallette of scratch zones, and each zone was labeled by a number (I believe it was 1-12). At any point during the film, a number would briefly flash in the corner of the screen, prompting viewers to start scratching and sniffing the corresponding scratch zone. Odorama was used in several other films after Polyester, but always as a joke, and it always proved a distraction to the film rather than an enhancement of it.
 
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benbradley

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People often say that one reason they don't buy e-books is because they like the smell of books. According to this article, one publisher of electronic textbooks has launched the first e-book with that "musty" smell. If you buy an e-book from CafeScribe.com , it comes with a free scratch-and-sniff snicker that smells like old books!
The smell of OLD books??? (I'm surrounded by that anyway) Okay, if it's "Gone With The Wind" I could imagine an old book smell, but if it's somethnig published THIS YEAR I'd want that smell you get from a brand-new $150 college textbook - the new paper, the ink, the glue - all the "new" chemicals, just like in a new car.

"The Singularity Is Near" and so is the cure for the cancer you're gonna get from inhaling all those chemicals.
 
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