Anything I can do about a book that smells stale?
I purchase a fair number of older used books on Amazon. I don’t mind a little wear. I’ve just received a 600-page paperback volume that looks fine for its 20-year age but has a nasty stale smell about it.
I can’t say it doesn’t fit the conditions as described, but I also don’t think I want to hold this book in front of my nose for as long as it will take me to read it.
The last book I met that smelled like this was a library book, and I took it straight back. So I don’t think this is the result of having been in, say, a smoker’s environment for a couple of decades. Nor does it just smell musty like some of my late mother’s 50— to 100-year-old books. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it.
Is there anything I can do to air out or otherwise freshen the odor of this volume?
I seem to be unable to force a hyphen after the ‘50’. It insists on overriding the format with an em dash. This is yet another idle, bootless protest.
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