smelly raze a slim paperback came to me stinking of the stuff that seeped out of a tobacco-packed tube. fitting, really, since the front cover shows a cigarette burning between two fingers. a hardback by a different author showed up with a smell of another kind. the sort of sad stench carried only by objects that have gone mad after years of neglect. i slipped a few sheets of fabric softener between the pages and kept the books in separate air-sealed bags. that helped. then they were moved to a plastic storage bin with an open box of baking soda beside them. the paperback has mellowed out into something i can live with now. the more frigid offender needs to stew a little longer in the dark before it's ready to rub shoulders with the other tomes taking up space in this box of brick and pine. 241015 what's it to you? who go blather from