This is the copy of a review from Amazon by Claudia Summer, it is worth reading:
Five stars for the writing. I cannot remember a book that gave me more pleasure. It's a great read, rich with fascinating details about scents I've never tried. I'm not a perfumista, don't read the myriad perfume blogs, and frankly, don't even know why I like the perfumes I like. Besides reading this book for fun - especially the hilarious one-star reviews -- I'm using it to learn. It's a road map to hundreds of perfumes to try. I spray those little sniff strips, later seal each in a plastic snack bag so I can re-evaluate it for days and attempt to understand the experts' points of view. Then I sleep with one strip on my pillow for one night, hoping for wonderful dreams. Aromatics Elixir produced technicolor giggles. Had I not read this book, I would never have looked to Clinique for a fabulous perfume. Another discovery is good ole (manly) Stetson, described here as "a crisp classical feminine oriental...gorgeous, as rugged and masculine as the lingerie level at Saks..." Who knew? I'm now using this wonderful el cheapo as air spray in my musty book lined office.
I've admired Luca since stumbling upon Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent at the library (and still like vibrations better than molecules), then read his Secrets of Scent, at least the civilian-friendly first half, and ordered my Amazon copy of this guidebook months ago. Who wouldn't gravitate toward a scientist who, as Burr reported, was scrambling for a Nobel Prize on one hand and on the other describing an iconic perfume as something that should be hanging in a Moscow taxi.
Luca has major creds, but who is this Tanya person? She won me over on page 12, describing how people get interested in perfume. For me, it's the Tabu factor: Mumsy always wore it and from my earliest days I thought the world smelled of (the old) Tabu, Lucky Strikes, martinis and snowflake-sprinkled fur. And then of the wonderful old greasy green Replique, Joy, Zizanie and Ma Griffe my father brought home from Paris and my first purchase, Jolie Madame. What was not to love? I appropriated the Replique and wore it to grade school and on into adulthood, miss it still, and have no idea what it was I loved about it. As Tanya said, all perfume lovers have long, fond memories. It's sad that so many older perfumes have been discontinued or reformulated beyond recognition and I agree with an earlier reviewer that critiques of some discontinued classics would have been welcome.
I may not understand the structure of perfume, but I do know about the structure of books. This is reasonably good but another few months of work might have produced a masterpiece. I wish the publisher's production people had thought harder about a few things: First, the white cover may be striking but it's impractical for a book designed to be schlepped back and forth to the store. Ditto the page size. I'd prefer a wider page with room to make notes. Actually, a trade paperback with a binding that lies flat would have been ideal. The 12-page star index is jammed and nearly unreadable. I miss having a real index. Eliminating some inconsequential perfumes that garnered only a one-sentence critique would have freed up space for an index, an opportunity to list by type, by company, and by designer.
But that's technical stuff. I love this book enough to give it five stars anyway.. It contributes color, wit, and delight to an increasingly unrecognizable world where control freaks nail "fragrance free zone" signs on far too many doors and wearing perfume is considered as undesirable as smoking. In my city, anyway. Thanks to this book, perfume sales surely will increase.
Five stars for the writing. I cannot remember a book that gave me more pleasure. It's a great read, rich with fascinating details about scents I've never tried. I'm not a perfumista, don't read the myriad perfume blogs, and frankly, don't even know why I like the perfumes I like. Besides reading this book for fun - especially the hilarious one-star reviews -- I'm using it to learn. It's a road map to hundreds of perfumes to try. I spray those little sniff strips, later seal each in a plastic snack bag so I can re-evaluate it for days and attempt to understand the experts' points of view. Then I sleep with one strip on my pillow for one night, hoping for wonderful dreams. Aromatics Elixir produced technicolor giggles. Had I not read this book, I would never have looked to Clinique for a fabulous perfume. Another discovery is good ole (manly) Stetson, described here as "a crisp classical feminine oriental...gorgeous, as rugged and masculine as the lingerie level at Saks..." Who knew? I'm now using this wonderful el cheapo as air spray in my musty book lined office.
I've admired Luca since stumbling upon Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent at the library (and still like vibrations better than molecules), then read his Secrets of Scent, at least the civilian-friendly first half, and ordered my Amazon copy of this guidebook months ago. Who wouldn't gravitate toward a scientist who, as Burr reported, was scrambling for a Nobel Prize on one hand and on the other describing an iconic perfume as something that should be hanging in a Moscow taxi.
Luca has major creds, but who is this Tanya person? She won me over on page 12, describing how people get interested in perfume. For me, it's the Tabu factor: Mumsy always wore it and from my earliest days I thought the world smelled of (the old) Tabu, Lucky Strikes, martinis and snowflake-sprinkled fur. And then of the wonderful old greasy green Replique, Joy, Zizanie and Ma Griffe my father brought home from Paris and my first purchase, Jolie Madame. What was not to love? I appropriated the Replique and wore it to grade school and on into adulthood, miss it still, and have no idea what it was I loved about it. As Tanya said, all perfume lovers have long, fond memories. It's sad that so many older perfumes have been discontinued or reformulated beyond recognition and I agree with an earlier reviewer that critiques of some discontinued classics would have been welcome.
I may not understand the structure of perfume, but I do know about the structure of books. This is reasonably good but another few months of work might have produced a masterpiece. I wish the publisher's production people had thought harder about a few things: First, the white cover may be striking but it's impractical for a book designed to be schlepped back and forth to the store. Ditto the page size. I'd prefer a wider page with room to make notes. Actually, a trade paperback with a binding that lies flat would have been ideal. The 12-page star index is jammed and nearly unreadable. I miss having a real index. Eliminating some inconsequential perfumes that garnered only a one-sentence critique would have freed up space for an index, an opportunity to list by type, by company, and by designer.
But that's technical stuff. I love this book enough to give it five stars anyway.. It contributes color, wit, and delight to an increasingly unrecognizable world where control freaks nail "fragrance free zone" signs on far too many doors and wearing perfume is considered as undesirable as smoking. In my city, anyway. Thanks to this book, perfume sales surely will increase.
