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You can now read the short stories appearing here on your computer in a revolutionary new breakthrough in technology! Chris Bell’s Bumper Book of Lies contains no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It’s so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its cover! Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere — even sitting in an armchair by the fire — yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here’s how it works. Each copy of The Bumper Book of Lies is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a cover, which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half.

The Bumper Book of Lies contains twenty stories and has 251 pages — its thickness and weight may cause it to draw some criticism from the mobile computing crowd. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The Bumper Book may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it. The Bumper Book never crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices it can become unusable if dropped in water. The ‘browse’ feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. The Bumper Book even comes with a so-called index feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional ‘bookmark’ accessory allows you to open the book to the exact place you left it in a previous session — even if it has been closed. Numerous bookmarks can be used in a single copy if the user wants to store numerous views at once, the number of bookmarks limited only by the total number of pages.

The Bumper Book of Lies is ideal for long-term archive use, as field trials on other similar data carriers have proven that the media will still be readable in several centuries and, because of its simple user interface, it will be compatible with future reading devices. Portable, durable and affordable, the book is being hailed as the entertainment wave of the future — be the envy of your neighbours with The Bumper Book of Lies!

The Bumper Book of Lies contains 20 extraordinary stories from the pages of many renowned, international fiction magazines, including: Auslander (UK); Axiom (UK); Chronicles Of Disorder (UK); The Edge (UK); Grotesque (UK); The Heidelberg Review (Germany); Medusa’s Hairdo (USA); Not One Of Us (USA); Sierra Heaven (UK); Sivullinen (Finland); Story Cellar (UK); Takahe (New Zealand); The Third Alternative (UK); Threads (UK); Transversions (Canada); The Zone (UK); Zygote (Canada); And Farseer (an e-zine). The stories ‘Dream Me An Island’ and ‘Wide Awake & Half Asleep’ are previously unpublished.

The Bumper Book of Lies (ISBN 3-00-000544-7) is a numbered, limited, collectors’ edition. All copies have been signed by the author. The book is in 11.5 x 18.7 cm paperback format, printed on high-quality art board and art paper with a full-colour cover.

Or if you would like to order a printable PDF file of any of the stories you have seen on this site, email me (chrisb[at]xtra[dot]co[dot]nz) with the title of the story in the subject line and I will send it to you by return.

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