01 October 2009

In any case, there's a propeller beanie involved.

Simon & Schuster announced yesterday that they are offering four of their titles as video-studded e-books you can download to your computer or buy as an app in iTunes. The first line of this boundary-crossing technology includes a fitness title (sort of a no-brainer for visual content) and a romance novella in salute to the genre readers who have cottoned onto e-books in disproportionate numbers.

The name they have come up with for this digital innovation is "vook." Really? That was the best option? It sounds like an SNL parody ad from the '90s featuring Adam Sandler as a kid who looks like he's reading in class but is actually watching a tiny television in his textbook. Or a creature one meets on the highway in the DRAGONLANCE series. Or a supernatural occurrence captured on audio. Or a racial slur. I think they should have run that one through a few more focus groups, but if anyone has bought one, how do you like it so far?

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