Books With Histories: Hunchback Of Notre Dame

(I'm telling the histories of some of the old, used books on my shelves. Read the series introduction here)


I got this when I worked at a used bookstore. We had people donate boxes of used books, and if we couldn't/didn't want to sell them we would put them on the clearance shelf.
 And the great thing about the clearance shelf was the rule where employees could take home the clearance books for free.


It was great for me, because there was often used copies of classics I wanted to read that weren't in bad condition, they were just older editions that weren't very lucrative.


Such the case with The Hunchback of Notre Dame.


I've seen the Disney movie, but I heard the book was different, and wanted to see for myself, and this cover isn't horrendous, so I took it home.
Usually classic book covers are hideous, but I actually like how this one was put together.

Except, when I brought it home, I realized that it actually REEKED of cigarette smoke, and the smell of cigarettes makes me feel ill, so I had to find a way to fumigate it before I could read it, or get rid of it and buy a new one.


 But I had become fond of the cover and the way that the book felt in my hands and the way the pages turned, and plus besides the smell it's actually not a bad copy.



So I googled 'how to get rid of cigarette smell in books' (or something similar), and saw essential oils suggested.

So, in my attempts to get rid of the smell so that I could actually stand to read it, I doused it in essential oils, trying to get rid of the smell.

So I took a tissue, put a couple drops of Thieves Essential Oil on it, split the tissue into thin pieces, and put the pieces between the pages, and set the book in a ziploc bag, letting it sit for a while.


I replaced the tissue every few days, but honestly I should have let it sit for at least a week or two not touching it.

I chose thieves because it's allegedly a helpful decontaminate, and I wanted the smell GONE.
Also because it smelled good.

(Folk tale about the origins of thieves oil here. I haven't researched the truth of it, this is just what influenced my choice. *Shrug* I couldn't find any posts that were not an essential oil site, so potential bias going on.)


And now we come to the part where I explain why I will never be a ''Pinterest craft blogger(TM)".

Because I DID manage to make the cigarette smell disappear, but instead of the book smelling like nothing, or maybe perhaps a faint WHIFF of Thieves Essential Oil, it now REEKS of the stuff.

So basically I replaced a horrid cigarette smell with a more pleasant but still overwhelming smell of like cloves, cinnamon, lemon, and whatever else is in the oil.

Like, it's so strong that I can just take the book off of my shelf, fan the pages around my room, and voila! My room smells of thieves.

It hasn't spread to any of the other books on my shelves, but I'm sure it will, eventually.


I classify this as a failure, but it actually fumigated the book enough to where I could stand to read it without feeling super nauseated, so it worked, in a fashion.

I'm not sure if I exactly recommend this method, but it did work, slightly. Just don't drown the book in the scent, should you try it.

And I kind of like the smell of thieves, so now the smell of thieves is tied to my memories of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so whenever I smell it I think of death and depressing endings, and the cathedral of Notre Dame.

Yay!