As books go beyond printed page to multisensory experience, what about reading?

By Monica Hesse
Monday, December 28, 2009

The mysterious man looks completely wrong to me.

In the text of conspiracy thriller “Embassy,” an online novel by Richard Doetsch, the character is described as “a starkly thin fellow with a protruding Adam’s apple.” My brain goes: Alan Rickman!

But when I click on the chapter’s accompanying video, the man is younger, tanner, scruffier. He’s dressed like he should be bumming clove cigarettes at a concert, not spying on the Greek Embassy.

What I’m reading is a Vook — a video/book hybrid produced in part by Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Interspersed throughout the text are videos and links that supplement the narrative. In one chapter, the Greek ambassador receives a mysterious DVD, and readers must click on an embedded video to learn what’s on it. In another, kidnapper Jack ominously tells his hostage that he’s going to prove that he means business.

Read the rest of the article here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/27/AR2009122701973.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

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