Originally designed by
Jorge Luis Borges, the E2 Hardcopy (also known as
E2: Dead Trees Agonistes or
The Book that has no Bookends) appears as an
in octavo hardbound book, cloth covered and with leather corner protectors.
The book is uncommonly heavy, and at the moment of picking it up more than one person mistakes it for a high-quality edition of the Bible, printed on rice paper.
This impression, however, is soon dispelled when the reader (and let us not cheat ourselves, the moment you pick it up you are destined, nay, doomed, to become a reader) actually opens the thin and crinkly pages.
This book contains everything, and it would contain no less than everything.
The pages are filled with text, set on two columns in a pleasantly readable serif type, although some readers claim that it is Courier.
The book provides endless entertainment, outrage and boredom, depending on the ways in which it is perused.
It is not known whether there is a front page: any attempt to get at the very first printed page (or at the last) is frustrated, since more pages appear.
Nonetheless, the thickness of the book will not change in any major way.
Finding again one particular page can be very difficult, and more than one reader reports that the very text, difficult as this may be to believe, changes every now and then.
Some of the copies emit a gentle hum, some show scuff marks on the cover. Owners of a copy will usually be quite secretive and protect the book with their very lives: some of them sell off their libraries, and declare that no other book is necessary.
There is talk of fanatics planning to burn down major libraries o tempora ! o mores!, since in comparison with the E2 Hardcopy all other books just a waste of space.
Another rumor has it that this book made an appearance in Peter Greenaway's movie Prospero's Books. We have no confirmation at present.