I couldn’t help but be captivated by a librarian’s recent call for help on Publib. He wanted to know how to get particularly powerful stenches out of books, especially cigarette smoke (”the evil weed”?). It’s a question I’ve pondered myself, though in a way I like this evidence of a past reader.

In any case, for those offended by odor, here’s what one responder offered up: Shake a mixture of baking soda and baby power in the the bottom on a box. Put an old oven rack over the mixture, put the books on the rack, then seal the box with tape for two weeks. To quote the poster, “It has worked on some really gross items.” Librarians truly rule—besides ordering, cataloging, and recommending books, they even clean them. But riddle me this: how best to extract melted chocolate from a (book) spine?