The law passed in the autumn of 2174 made each book a standard size which measured one hand by one hand.  The hand in question was the illiterate Princess of the Americas whose wrist to tip of her middle digit was exactly 6.25 inches.  A standard cover was issued for every book – the Princess’s eye colour with a small flag of the Americas in the lower right-hand corner. (Her eyes were a most bland shade of rainy grey, and the flag grey with white stars.  The effect was underwhelming.).   While booksellers were ecstatic, the vocabulary-challenged general population was bored.