Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez: A-Z Guide to Perfumes... eh, what?

The A-Z Guide to Perfumes is certainly weighty - at 620 pages, it will set you back a fairly average £12.99.

Authors Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez seem to know their stuff - Luca is a biophysicist who has reasearched a new theory about the way we smell.

Tania is a perfume collector and an expert who owns more than 2,000 bottles.

Together, they sniffed their way through 1,500 perfumes to come up with this - an A-Z guide to all those pretty and not-so-pretty bottles of scent out there.

The perfumes are all listed alphabetically, given a star rating (up to five stars) and then a brief description, such as "woody citrus" followed by a more detailed review and price guide.

The reviews are interesting if you wear the scent - but honestly, I think there is far too much hype over this book. It is essentially as interesting as a telephone directory.

It reminds me of one of those stands in gift shops - selling key rings with names on them and their origins. You scrabble your way through until you find your own name - taking no interest in any of the others. It keeps you entertained for approximately two minutes.

Same with this. I went through the book and found my own favourite perfume (I knew the authors would be harsh about it, because it's extremely mainstream - I know this and therefore don't hold it against them).

The book gave my perfume two stars and then described it as 'pink floral'.

It said: "A reprehensibly dull and not even pleasant soapy floral with sugary gestures, for the kind of young women who get their hair cut precisely the same as their friends and shop from the same catalogues, so even their boyfriends can't tell them apart at 10 paces."

Ha ha ha.. oh well, nevermind. I've just got a whole new bottle so my boyfriend's confusion will have to last a little longer!

This is the problem - my own perfume was the only interesting part of the book for me. I handed the guide to a few colleagues. They politely flicked through to find their own scent and then discarded the book, no longer interested.

I'm taking it to a friend's flat tonight. She loves perfumes and maybe this is the book she always wanted. I'm just not sure I can see her flicking through to find her next purchase... why would she, when she can just go out and sample a few? 

I've nothing against reference guides, nothing at all - and why shouldn't perfume be represented in this market? But comments like "best book I've ever read" and "unfailingly entertaining" oh honestly, you just wanted your name on a book jacket didn't you?

With all these - apparently quite sensible - journalists lining up to praise this book, I'm left wondering... forget new clothes, was the emperor wearing new perfume instead?