I walked into the rabbi’s home library. We were to discuss an endowment he wanted to create to honor his wife before he died, which he knew was on a not-to-distant horizon. He motioned to a chair on the opposite side of the desk, inviting me to take a seat to start the conversation. I paused before I sat down. “Can I just inhale this for a minute,” I asked with a smile. He understood completely.

Before we began the conversation of the business at hand, he shared information about the multitude of books in his library, advising me that the ingredients that made for the incredible aroma of the room were leather book covers, binding glue and old paper. Some were well over one hundred years old, as I recall. Together, they created an environment that I would be willing to spend hours in. I have yet to enter a room with the rich scent of that library.

I love old books, even if they are not among hundreds like them in a room or library.

I have a few old books that friends have given me over the years or that I have discovered online or in used-book stores. I am not a collector, but I am a sincere admirer.

There is much to admire in old books: the contents are likely greater writings than found in a contemporary book; attention was paid by the designers to choices in paper, fonts and layout; the paper’s smell is impossible to ignore and irresistible to appreciate; and, the volume has heft, even modest sized works. Chances are that you, too, have opened an old book, buried your face between the pages and inhaled slowly.

I handle old books differently, with respect and gentleness. I read them differently, too. I have a tendency to underline sentences and make notes in books but would never do so with an old one. I see it as an elder, of sorts.

Old books are like time capsules. Open one to see the past in the words of yore, displayed with a sense or art and purpose.

…I sure love old books.

This blog section is titled Philo, which is Greek for loving, as in love of: for example, philanthropy: love of people/humanity; philosophy: love of knowledge or wisdom. My writings for Philo examine “love of” many things — both subtle and sublime — that comprise life and living.

Check out my photographic project for the year, The Year of 70: Decades of Joy and Thanks.