Smelly old books

I have been making it a habbit lately to go thrift store shopping for old books. I have gotten a few neat classics that I am proud to own. Among them a 1947 copy of A Field Guide to The Birds by Peterson, a 1941 copy of Don Quixote, a 1967 copy of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and a 1941 copy of Ben Franklin's Autobiography. They arent really worth much but the smell of old books beats anything else. I really enjoy reading the classics and believe there is no greater knowledge than reading about our past through its literature. I am currently working my way through a 1969 copy of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. The story is great, and I get a kick out of burying my face in the spine and inhaling the scent of old book, and perhaps the decades of life this book has seen, and perhaps the many people who have flipped through these same pages generations before me. What has happened through the life of this book? who owned it? who read it? Why did they get rid of it? did someone who owned it die? The story of the life of this book is almost as intriguing as the story within its pages.
My proudest find to date isnt a book all that old but a very unique book still the same... a 1987 copy of Rob Van der Plas' The Bicycle Touring Manual. The technology described in this book is completely outdated, some of the advice is a bit antiquated and the pictures are classic, but this book was certainly a neat find. It is interesting to see how far we have come since I was a wee 6 year old boy.