Our guild was once offered a real deal on some books. 3 for $10. Wow, however when they came they had a horrible odor. I was going to just toss them as it was really BAD. DH said to sprinkle cinnamon into the pages and over and under them and put them in a plastic bag for a week. It worked. Later he said it was from shipping and something in the shipping compartment had died and that is what the smell was. I didn't ask what he thought had made the smell. I just had visions of rats or some such.