What exactly does a book smell like?

Oliver Tearle, an author and lecturer in English at Loughborough University, helped popularize the word “bibliosmia,” to describe the allure of sniffing a book ... an experience even e-book adopters have happily shared!

But what exactly are we smelling? And why do we enjoy it so much?

Tearle dug into the science of bibliosmia and shared it at Interesting Literature.