It turns out there's a scientific explanation for that used bookstore smell. The answer comes from the book Perfumes: The Guide (via the Paper Cuts blog).Authors Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez say, "Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related … Continue reading Old Book Smell

Indonesian author Tung Desem Waringin promoted his new book--on marketing, no less--with a novel method. He threw 100,000,000 rupiah (about $11,000) from a plane. Around 500 people assembled in a stadium below scrambled for the windfall.Details are here and here.--David E