"The Readies"
Brown's idea for his fast book was inspired by the recent advent of movies (hence "readies"). He loved the pace, vivacity, and accessibility of the "talkies", and endeavored to make a reading experience that could match up. He imagined a machine which would use a reel to move a long, narrow strip of paper across a screen. On this paper, the readies would be printed in a new shorthand Brown developed specifically for the machine. The text would be printed in miniature on rolls similar to microfilm, small enough to need a magnifying glass. Though his machine was never made, works were written for it, and a digital version exists.
One of Brown's most pressing concerns was usability. He wanted reading to be an enjoyable, portable experience, and he designed his reading machine to do away with the stuffy and laborious process of novel reading. The owner of the reading machine could adjust its speed to their liking, rushing through long novels in minutes or taking them at a leisurely pace. One could skip to any point in the book they might want, retaining the random accessibility of the codex. It seems important to Brown that, above all, his machine let people get more out of reading.
