I actually had time to relax and read a Sunday newspaper over the weekend and came across a quirky headline in the Sunday News. Now I realise why I love the look, the smell and the feel of old books, wandering amongst the bookshelves of libraries, not able to walk past a book shop, especially one of old toombs. Yes - my name is Kowhai Reader and I am a Book Addict.
It's apparently now a recognised medical fact. Here's part of the original report that started it all from Ellen Warren of the Chicago Tribune.
It turns out that, if you spend enough time around old books anddecaying manuscripts in dank archives, you can start to hallucinate.Really. We're not talking psychedelia, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"stuff, here. But maybe only a step or two away from that. Experts onthe various fungi that feed on the pages and on the covers of booksare increasingly convinced that you can get high - or at least alittle wacky-by sniffing old books. Fungus on books, they say, is alikely source of hallucinogenic spores. The story of The Strangenessin the Stacks first started making its way through the usually staidantiquarian books community late last year with the publication of apaper in the British medical journal, The Lancet. There, Dr. R.J. Haywrote of the possibility that "fungal hallucinogens" in old bookscould lead to "enhancement of enlightenment."
Read the full text of the original article by clicking here
Just another quirky notion from the book world. I hasten to add that the report carries on to say you would need extensive and continual exposure to old books (i.e. living between the shelves) to realise the high - but don't let that get in the way of a good story.
Ka kite ano
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