Learn how to smell our bookmarks!

 

I have recently, through a long, bureaucratic process, obtained free bookmarks to hand out to our library visitors (free for them!). Here is a picture sampler of our variety:

We've got some lovely and very sturdy famous painting bookmarks. These are two-sided. There are also the Snoopy ones, and Dr. Seuss, and Ernst Haeckel. Oh, but you can't see any Ernst Haeckel in the above picture. So...

Those are the Ernst Haeckel, flanking Snoopy.

But I am not here about any of those really, as exciting as they may be. I am here about the smellable bookmarks, like the one you can see below that says "I love to read cherry much":

"Wait!" You cry out. "If it's 'I love to read cherry much', then what did they do with the 'berry' bookmark?"

I've anticipated your question:

So, pretty much the same.

Except,

You really are the berry best!

Now, I love scented bookmarks, and I got as many as I could this time around. But I confess I was at first disappointed. Many of the bookmarks didn't smell like the fake versions of their pictured fruits. They smelled too... chemically.

But then, by divine providence, I stumbled upon an invaluable proper technique to smelling this kind of bookmark. And I am going to teach it to you, whether you are interested in it or not, which is usually how we do things around here.

First, choose the matte, or non shiny side of the bookmark.

Next, scratch it up a bit with your fingernail.

Then, don't hold it right up to your nose and sniff! That seems like the natural move, but it gets into the artificial chemical profile of the scent. What we want to do is ease the illusion out of the bookmark. So gently waft the bookmark in front of your face, like you're fanning your slightly too warm nose. Gently breathe in.

Smell that?

It's berry good, isn't it.

You'll be melon for more!

I hope that made scents.