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New Book: What the Nose Knows - The Science of Scent in Everyday Life ~ by Avery Gilb

post #1 of 11
6/11/08 at 7:20am
Thread Starter 
New Book: What the Nose Knows - The Science of Scent in Everyday Life ~ by Avery Gilbert


Anya McCoy takes the first look at Avery Gilbert's forthcoming What The Nose Knows - The Science of Scent in Everyday Life. In the book you'll find out what is the connection between Eric Cartman and President Chirac; What makes former Playboy Bunny Izabella St. James gag; The truth about clearing your nose with coffee beans and why Eugene Rimmel was the Fred Hayman of the 1800's.

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post #2 of 11
6/13/08 at 4:02pm
Thanks for the news!
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post #3 of 11
6/26/08 at 3:03pm
So, did anyone order this yet - it was released this week?

I'm considering buying it and taking it with me on my summer vacation.
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post #4 of 11
6/26/08 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeperez23 View Post

So, did anyone order this yet - it was released this week?

I'm considering buying it and taking it with me on my summer vacation.

Just ordered here and will sit impatiently by the mailbox. When are you going on vakay? You must start a thread as SOON as you've finished! Sounds fab.
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post #5 of 11
7/3/08 at 7:36pm
I just got mine in the mail today - I'm not gonna read it til I go on vacation (next week!!).

I'm excited to read someone else's scientific yet fun commentary on smells, besides Burr & Turin.
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post #6 of 11
7/7/08 at 4:15pm
Mine was in today's mail...dropped all the groceries on the floor (left them there) and am now chewing up page 9!!!

Will report!! (Good facile writing. HUGE number of "footnotes"!!)

Couple of hours later: Oh geeze - I'm gonna be up all night!! Fascinating! How the gas chromatograph works...how Givaudan trains perfumers...scented butterflies...(Turin gets a nod so far, but his knuckles rapped for "capsule reviews (that are) highly stylized" ... and that , at the end, "a reader doesn't what it (Apres l'Ondee) smells like) Woo hoo....
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post #7 of 11
7/9/08 at 10:27pm
Thanks for posting this-- I just checked and our library has a copy which is available and which I've reserved online and will soon be reading!
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post #8 of 11
7/28/08 at 8:12am
Bump -- soooooooo? Report back - you know I love this book re: my review here on BN. If I have a spare minute soon I'm going to dip back in - fun on every page!
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post #9 of 11
7/28/08 at 8:10pm
I took it with me on my vacation (along with The Secret of Scent by Burr) and although I haven't finished the book yet, I found Mr. Gilbert's short, almost essayed style of writing very easy to read.

I have learned a TON of new information about smells...I can't wait to post some threads with some of this information. I bet there's a lot that we Basenoter's don't know about the 'science' behind some smells.
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post #10 of 11
7/29/08 at 7:30pm
I'm almost through with Gilbert's book. It is a quick, pleasant read. It reads more like a series of magazine articles than a book, though - but this makes it a perfect summer book. You can put it down at any time and not worry about getting lost...

There are some interesting anecdotes and facts (opinions?) that will tickle most BN'ers fancy. (I never have liked the whole coffee bean thing in fragrance stores...) But a couple of the chapters are waaay too long, such as the one on scent and the movies.

Teddius
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post #11 of 11
7/31/08 at 10:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teddius View Post

...It is a quick, pleasant read. It reads more like a series of magazine articles than a book, though...

I considered ordering this unseen from Amazon because the bookstores and libraries around here haven't stocked it, but I reconsidered. I was afraid that it would contain "fluff" or a series of loosely related facts, some of them interesting but more of them trite.

This summer I read Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and The Perfect Scent by Chandler Burr, both of which I enjoyed greatly. I also re-read The Emperor of Scent by Burr about Turin's vibrational theory of the sense of smell, and in preparation for my current selection, The Secret of Scent by Turin about his own theory. I also highly recommend those two books.

After that, I wonder how What the Nose Knows will compare. If anyone has read the Burr and Turin books and also the Gilbert book, what do you think?
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Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Fragrance Industry and General Fragrance Discussion › New Book: What the Nose Knows - The Science of Scent in Everyday Life ~ by Avery Gilb