She breathed deeply of the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and forgotten verse, and she observed for the first time that a room full of books smelled like dessert: a sweet snack made of figs, vanilla, glue, and cleverness.

Joe Hill
About This Quote

The smell of books, not the smell of rotting flesh, was the smell that had haunted her for years. The smell of books is one of the most pleasant smells in the world. All year long, she'd been working on the scent of decaying fiction, disintegrating history, and forgotten verse. But it wasn't until she smelled a room full of books that she fully understood what it meant to have a sense of smell beyond description. That's when she first realized that she had a true gift with scent.

Source: Nos4A2

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