A new aid to rapid - almost magical - learning has made is appearance.
Indications are that if it catches on all the electronic gadgets will be so much junk.
The new device is know as Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge. The makers generally call it by its initials, BOOK.
Many advantages are claimed over the old-style learning and teaching aids on which most people are brought up nowadays.
It has no wires, no eletric circuit to break down. No connection is need to an eletricity power point. It has made entirely without mechanical parts to go wrong or need replacement.
Anyone can use BOOK even children, and it fits comfortably into the hands. It can be coneviently used sitting in na armchair by the fire.
How does this revolutionary, unbelievably easy invention work ?
Basically BOOK consists only a large number of paper sheets. These may run to hundreds where BOOK covers a lengthy programme of information. Each sheet bears a number in sequence so that the sheets cannot be used in the wrong order.
To make it even easier for the user to keep the sheets in the proper order they are held firmly in place by a special locking device called a "binding".
Each sheet of paper presents the user with na information sequence in the form of symbols, which he absorbs optically for automatic registration on the brain.
When one sheet has been assimilated a flick of the finger turns it over and further information is found on the other side.
By using both sides of each sheet in this way a great economy is effected, thus reducing both the size and cost of BOOK. No buttons need to be pressed to move from one sheet to another, to open or close BOOK, or to start it working.
BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. Instantly it is ready for use. Nothing has to be connected up or switched on.
The user may turn at will to any sheet , going backward or forwards as he pleases. A sheet is provided near the beginning as a location finder for any required information sequence.
A small accessory, available at trifling extra cost, is the BOOKmark.
This enables the user to pick up his programme where he left off on the previous learning session. BOOKmark is versatile and may be used in any BOOK.
The initial costs varies with the size and subject matter.
Already a vast range of BOOKs is available, covering every conceivable subject and adjusted to different levels of aptitude.
One BOOK, small enough to be held n the hands, may contain an entire learning achedule.
Once purchased, BOOK requires no further upkeep cost, no batteries ore wires are needed, since the motive power, thanks to an ingenious device patented by the makers, is supplied by the brain of the user.
BOOKs may be stored on handy shelves and for ease of reference the programme schedule is normally indicated on the back of the binding.
Altogether the Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge seems to have great advantages with no drawbacks.
We predict a big future for it.

(The Future of the Printed Word: the Impact and Implications of the New Communications Technology- Philip Hills)