Is reading memory stronger than scent memory?

The first book I ever read was Ice Station Zebra by Alistair Maclean. I was four. This is how it happened:

My dad was a voracious reader. To get attention, I'd climb up under his book and settle myself on his lap. He'd read aloud to me and by the end of the book I was reading to him. I can't remember any of the story. I just remember the cover and the sensation of being cradled on my dad's lap as we read together.

I've recently begun reading the book for the first time since then. I still don't remember the story but it feels familiar, almost like I can predict what the next scene is going to be. The characters feel like friends. And as I read, I can almost feel again what it was like to sit on my dad's lap, his arm holding me securely as we slipped into the fictional world of the story. I can smell him again--that warm mixture of axle grease and tobacco. He died more than twenty years ago but this story brings him back for me.

Another thing I've noticed since I began reading this book again. A lot of my writing style is similar to Maclean's in this book. I know reading encourages writing development and I know your writing style can be influenced by what you read, but, seriously, this was the first ever book I read. I've read a LOT of books between that one and where I'm at now. Surely, they would have had as much influence on my writing as Ice Station Zebra. But, no. My first drafts, the words that pop into my head without thought or process, come out sounding like Maclean's words in Ice Station Zebra.

And the reading has triggered a scent memory. I had thought scent memory is the strongest memory of all, but what if it's not. What if your reading memory is the strongest thing of all? What would a world be like if no one remembered anything until someone finds a book and they begin to read. And then to feel, and to think.

And that, boys and girls, is how we move from a four-year-old's memories to a brand new plot bunny...