I am a Jane Austen fan, and a Greer Garson fan. There is a wonderful scene in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice - the one where Elizabeth and Darcy are sparring for the first time in the drawing room at Netherfield - where Garson uses a book knife to open the pages. It was a common practice. Book pages are printed on a large sheet, folded and bound into the book. When a reader sets out to read, they do so with a book knife in hand, to slit the pages.Today, handed in to me for repair, a book without the pages slit. The reader, and my coworkers confounded by the pages awaiting a book knife so the information could be opened to the world. And the book that has confounded them with this small mechanical solution? Big Data: A Very Short Introduction. (QA76.9.B45H66 2017).
I recommend the Very Short Introduction series. Even it you need to open the pages with a knife now and then.
