Welcome to our annual summer reading poll! (And we’ve done lots of extra reading polls in the last year, so if you want more recommendations, see fall, winter and spring.) Author birthdays this weekend: Paul Dunbar, Helen Keller and Alice McDermott on Saturday; Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Eric Ambler on Sunday.
The poll: please recommend a great book to add to our summer reading lists, and tell us what fragrance we should wear while reading it.
My recent reading…
We already did an “extra” reading poll for fall last year, but COVID-19 has many of us reading more than usual, so we’re adding spring to the mix too. Please recommend a great book to add to our reading lists, and tell us what fragrance we should wear while reading it.
What I’ve read since our winter reading poll…
One that’s [sic] stays with me [is] Laurie Lea’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. In the first chapter, there’s the line ‘as I tramped through the dust towards the Wiltshire Downs a growing reluctance weighed me down. White elder-blossom and dog roses hung in the hedges, blank as unwritten paper, and the hot empty road – there were few motorcars then – reflected Sunday’s waste and indifference.' Even the blank white paper evokes a smell, this is all so beautifully filled with olfactory narrative for me.
— Lyn Harris of Perfumer H, quoted in Renowned perfumers share the books that inspire them at Wallpaper.
Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit! Welcome to February, and welcome to our annual winter reading poll!
Tell us about a great book to curl up with on a frosty winter night, and what fragrance we should wear while reading it…
Reliable sources tell me winter is coming, but it’s not here yet and I would like to talk about books. Can we try a fall reading list? Three reading polls a year does not seem excessive to me, but do feel free to complain in the comments. (And our fall television / movies poll is coming up soon too.)
So, please recommend a great book to add to our fall reading lists, and tell us what fragrance we should wear while reading it…