Ray once wrote a technical description of a book that sounded as though it were an electronic device. He did this 15-20 years ago when such things as ebooks and iPads were only dreamt of but people were even then predicting the demise of the old book.
Anyone point me to that brief article?

Welcome!
I don't know, yet, onepianoman, but all the talk lately about "the nook" and google's new ebook service makes this topical, to be sure.
Worth checking out are the nonfiction collections BRADBURY SPEAKS and YESTERMORROW.
In BRADBURY SPEAKS the essay "The Rabbit Hole Lost and Found Book Shoppe", describes a very Bradburyan Ideal bookstore.

quote:

Originally posted by onepianoman:
Ray once wrote a technical description of a book that sounded as though it were an electronic device...

Hi onepianoman, and welcome to the board. I have to say that "technical description" just does not sound like Bradbury at all. Whenever he describes technology it is more likely to be described with metaphor rather than technical detail.

What you MIGHT be referring to is the Martian book used in THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, which is first described thus:

"you could see Mr. K himself in his room, reading from a metal book with raised hieroglyphs over which he brushed his hand, as one might play a harp. And from the book, as his fingers stroked, a voice sang, a soft ancient voice, which told tales of when the sea was red steam on the shore and ancient men had carried clouds of metal insects and electric spiders into battle."

Another possibility is that Bradbury is being mixed up with someone like Isaac Asimov (which happens amazingly often - amazing because the two writers are poles apart in their writing style and approaches to technology). Asimov, though, is more famous for having described the traditional paper book as being the perfect random-access information device, and vastly superior to any computer or electronic tool.

I hope this helps! (Probably not... )