Why do the books smell bad?

[pawsplay]

At first, I thought it was just I had never owned such a new RPG hardcover before, but now it's been a few weeks, and my books still smell bad. I got them from different places. I would describe the smell as "cedar chest, with subtle notes of nail polish and burnt rubber." It has been noticeably fading, but it makes my eyes water sometimes when I open my Bestiary quickly.

 

[jaerdaph]

Anyone who owns cats has no right to complain about foul odors. Ever.

 

[Alzrius]

I like the way the books smell. I enjoy opening them up, putting my nose to the center of the pages, and inhaling deeply.

The effect isn't quite the same as sniffing a marker, but it's still enjoyable.

 

[pawsplay]

So what is it? Acetones? Smelly Chinese trees?

 

[jaerdaph]

Well let's see. It kind of smells like *sniff sniff*... it smells like the stuff I use to clean my monitor....

Oh wait, that *is* my monitor!!! I forgot I only own the PDF version of Pathfinder!

 

[pawsplay]

It does kind of smell like something that could be used to clean a monitor.

 

[jaerdaph]

Did you say the book was printed in Red China? Then it's probably the cheap materials and inks they use in the sweatshops over there. I'm sure the shipping containers they shipped it over to this country in weren't a perfume shop either. Anything I've ever purchased manufactured there has always had some reek of mystery "solvent" to it.

 

[Wicht]

While I would never admit to being so nerdy as to go around smelling my new rpg books, if i did I would probably have to say that mine have a delightful smell of fresh ink.

 

[Set]

I hadn't actually checked, but I just took a whiff, and my Pathfinder books smell okay (although, after reading your description, I definitely seem to be picking up a faint 'burnt rubber' scent, now that you mention it!). Still, I had to shove my face into the giant's spiders unmentionables to notice it...

I do have an assortment of RPG books that smelled terrible when I got them (many black and white White Wolf books printed in Canada smelled truly nasty, although I have no idea if it was because they used so much black ink as a result of their generally dark-themed artwork or what), but I haven't noticed any 'stinky books' in several years, from them or anyone else.

Of the three or four random books within reach of my computer, the only one that had a distinctive odor was a Mongoose Encylopedia Arcane book (very sharp odor, not foul, just surprising).

 

[Elodan]

At first, I thought it was just I had never owned such a new RPG hardcover before, but now it's been a few weeks, and my books still smell bad. I got them from different places. I would describe the smell as "cedar chest, with subtle notes of nail polish and burnt rubber." It has been noticeably fading, but it makes my eyes water sometimes when I open my Bestiary quickly.

I won't say they smell bad, but I do notice I strong smell whenever I crack open a new Paizo book.