--That suggests question of size--what do you think about size?
--Oh, small, by all means. For the usual job not larger than the 5-1/2x7-3/4 range. Smaller than that when you can.
--You think people do not want a big package for their money?
--Not when they want a book to read. If we can get the price down they'll flock to small size, I'm sure. When they pay two-fifty, three, perhaps they want their poundage. Books for gifts too, possibly--want 'em impressive. But on my basis of a good workable tool they'll like them small and handy.
--Your point in general, then, is that modern books should be looked at as temporary affairs.
--Absolutely. Temporary affairs. Like magazines. And they ought to be _produced_ as temporary affairs. Paper a little better than newsprint, but not much better--better color, on the warmish side instead of blue-grey. "Guaranteed by the Bureau of Standards to last three hundred years." Bosh. Presswork: set your standard at the level of legibility. That's low--look at the newspapers. Get it so you can read it easily and let the fine points ride. Give up points of paper and make-ready to get a cheaper package. You are making a tool, remember, not a _bijou_--you're making a sound, efficient, easy-working tool--tools don't need paper lace and fake-leather upholstery to make them sound--when a tool is efficient it has a style of its own, inevitably.
--Books as tools. Right. But here's a point. All this is on the technical side. Treat a book as a temporary affair. But while it lasts I'd take considerable pains to have it be a _lively_ affair. Not freakish--you can't play tricks with the reading process--but lively, like a good, interesting talker. Little fresh twists, but hardly noticeable in detail. A lot of ways to do it in an inconspicuous way. Mustn't be conspicuous--mustn't interfere with the reading job. Little touches of ornament in the right places. Pictorial bits--pictures are coming back into trade books again, in a new form--easy, swift, simple illustrations that fit in with the "temporary affair" style. Some of the money saved by a strategic retreat from impossible printing standards I'd put into things like that--to keep the pages gay and interesting.