🚬📚🤢 Smoking & Library Books 🤢📚🚬

[Stack of books - image from Google]

[Stock graphic of a pack of cigarettes]

Today … for something a bit different – an interesting topic …

Smoking and library books.

Why?

Where did I come up with that interesting topic? Personal experience sadly. 

There’s nothing quite like finding the book you’ve been wanting to read, especially when you can score it for “free” from the library. Saves money, especially if you’re on the fence about buying it and you REALLY want to read it but don’t have the money to buy your own copy. 

Then, having a little time in which to indulge yourself, you crack the book open.

Now, I LOVE to smell books … and I’m sure others do too.

So, you open the book, take a whiff …

COUGH, COUGH, COUGH … hack! 🤢

It smells like an ashtray! 🚬 Disappointing, and a bit sickening to be honest. Not everyone enjoys the smell of cigarettes.

And, even if you don’t “smell” the book – the “stink” is transferred onto bookmarks, clothing, and hands from just reading the book so you do get a “dose” of it.

And, yes … that happened to me.

As I had run out of “renew” options for one copy of a particular novel, I reserved another copy of the book. I dropped off the one that was due, and picked up the one being held. Naturally, just as I was getting into it – I discovered the offensive odor.

I have Asthma, so I can’t be around anything related to cigarette products. Imagine trying to read a book that smells like it inhaled a carton of cigarettes. That’s not too easy to do – read the book that is.

But, it highlights an interesting issue – smoking around books – particularly library books that get passed from person to person. It can be a bit of a turn-off to want to borrow more books, especially if you’re super sensitive to cigarette smoke.

This is where the issue becomes thorny. Do the libraries, like rental car companies, ask that people refrain from smoking around the books?

After all, there are people like myself who are sensitive to cigarette smoke and can go into respiratory distress from even the fumes/smell. Sometimes we even get headaches and nausea from it. There are some who might break out into a rash.

That’s real thorny indeed.

The books are likely being read in one’s private residence; where, unless it is prohibited by a “clean indoor air” act, smoking is completely permissible. I know I wouldn’t like to be told I couldn’t do something that is completely legal in my home.

While it’s okay for a rental car company to prohibit smoking as the car is THEIR property, that’s where it is a bit complicated. The book is the property of the library, but it is being read in someone’s residence. And, the fumes aren’t really damaging to the book itself – not in any real sense. It just “stinks” up the book pages.

That then leaves people like myself, who risk getting sick from reading a book tainted by a smoker, wondering what we can do to prevent any issues with our health. Do we just not borrow books, or ask for a “clean” copy? How can libraries clean a book? How can they make sure that a “clean” copy exists?

That’s the downside to borrowing a book from the library – you may get a book that “stinks” in other ways than just the plot.

After borrowing so many books from the library this year – this is the first time I’ve run into this issue. But, it is an interesting issue to say the least. And, it is one of those issues that isn’t easily solved either. That’s the frustrating part. There is no answer. 

Just something I wanted to throw out there to see if anyone else has had that problem.