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I was reading a book on 19th century bindery practices and found out they used to size paper with actual animal glue, not the synthetic stuff.

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rodriguez.cora
That explains the old book smell.
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rivera.keith
Yeah, that old book smell is a whole vibe. @rodriguez.cora is right, it's totally from the materials. I found a first edition from like 1880 at a garage sale and the pages felt totally different, way more cloth-like and stiff. You can really tell they used the animal glue because it yellows in a specific way. Modern books just don't have that same feel or smell at all.
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