by 10DD » Oct 24th, '14, 11:16
Old thread but I'd picked up one of these fairly recently and will offer my views on it.
There was a fault with my copy that means it won't always work as it should. The retailer contacted the manufacturer with my query who misunderstood it and claimed it wasn't a problem that would affect the workings of the book - but it does. I'm now not having any communication from the retailer which is very disappointing and won't be buying from them again if nothing changes. I tried contacting Scott on here on the off chance he could offer any help or advice but haven't heard back. It looks like I'll be forced to modify my copy to get it to work as it should.
Those problems aside, the book itself is decent if you've got a non-faulty copy. I don't know why the book was only secured with two staples, a little bit more effort there would have helped the durability, perhaps a gumming along the spine or a little bit of material to act as a bind.
I take slight issue with the statement I saw in the original post that "it can be thoroughly examined & inspected by all but the secret will not be found". This is not really true, but then again it's not something I would place any importance on to have examined. I would explain what it is, display some pages and give the instructions, pocketing the book when spectator has the thought in their mind. It is forgotten about after that and not referred to again.
I don't think anyone should be performing this to a group whereby they use each different feature on a different spectator as described in the ad-copy. That's rather contrived, making the book more of prop than it ever should be, and to a certain extent lazy.
I would use one feature within a group as part of a larger routine to allow me to either predict or divine something completely freely thought of related to that subject. I would then use a different feature for another group, again, as part of a larger routine where a freely thought of item is involved.
I've made my own even smaller version of the book as an experiment which took relatively little time (you're buying knowledge that can be put to good use, not just a physical item). I've omitted the object/design feature as that was the weakest element for me. I'll also be putting together another copy of this smaller size homemade version with modifications to streamline the country and word features (no addition required to utilize the country feature and the removal of the word association list), also allowing for a second list of items (of a different theme to countries) on the back cover. If you are an owner of a BIP Book, feel free to message me for details on the smaller versions I am constructing for my own use.