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News & ArtsFriday, October 2, 2009
Books Fuck a Vook
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Simon & Schuster published the world's first vooks yesterday. They are e-books with video components. I can understand, perhaps, including video with a fitness book or a cookbook, although I don't understand why you wouldn't just watch a fitness video or go to a cooking website. But the weird mishmash of videos interspersed in prose fiction (even genre fiction like a romance book or a thriller) is a particularly terrible idea. You can't commingle reading and watching a video clip. The clip is an overpowering experience—the characters and settings you've imagined while reading are sure to be immediately replaced by who- or whatever is in the film. Reading is not going to acquire new fans in this way.
1
or you could just buy an iPhone which already has that (and a better eBook reader than most of the eBooks for actual usage by real people)
2
The skepticism is probably warranted -- I almost never click on embedded video online -- but give the medium a chance first. E-books (or in this case "vooks") offer an array of intriguing possibilities, so let's explore 'em first before we judge, particularly as the technology and interfaces develop.
4
I could see someone creative making it work. But most likely publishers would just put movie trailers of the film adaption in there.
7
Sounds fascinating...I used to make things like that in 1993 using Microsoft's Viewer (you would put mark-up in a Word document, including AVIs, and "compile" it into something the Viewer would render -- all pre-Mosaic).
9
"You can't commingle reading and watching a video clip."
Really? So you've never enjoyed a film with sub-titles?
Really? So you've never enjoyed a film with sub-titles?
10
Not to mention "vook" is a stupid name.
(Then again I thought Wii was a stupid name too and it took off.)
(Then again I thought Wii was a stupid name too and it took off.)
12
The idea itself isn't bad, but you can't just throw a bunch of crap in there because it's "video content" and expect it to be any good.
If you consider other examples of mixed media types, like illustrated book and album covers, those images have sometimes left a stronger impression than what was inside.
I've enjoyed some literary works much more because they were coupled with fantastic illustrations, like the Divine Comedy with Dore's woodcuts, or Alice in Wonderland with John Tenniel's iconic cartoons.
I can think of a lot of ways adding video could be fantastic. If you have high production value, like a short animation of the caliber used for feature films (Pixar stuff, Pan's Labyrinth, ILM, etc), that could enrich the experience considerably. I imagine we'll see some pretty amazing video added to children's books before too long. The benefit of adding video content to textbooks is obvious, too.
I do agree with the implication that including video undermines part of the value of books, which is to give us a chance to step away from the sensory overload, slow down and relax. To that end, I expect several years from now I'll be reading books on a tablet with the annoying video disabled by default and only turning it back on if I know the video is so outstanding that it actually adds something special to the experience.
Just like I won't use a web browser today without the FlashBlock extension installed.
If you consider other examples of mixed media types, like illustrated book and album covers, those images have sometimes left a stronger impression than what was inside.
I've enjoyed some literary works much more because they were coupled with fantastic illustrations, like the Divine Comedy with Dore's woodcuts, or Alice in Wonderland with John Tenniel's iconic cartoons.
I can think of a lot of ways adding video could be fantastic. If you have high production value, like a short animation of the caliber used for feature films (Pixar stuff, Pan's Labyrinth, ILM, etc), that could enrich the experience considerably. I imagine we'll see some pretty amazing video added to children's books before too long. The benefit of adding video content to textbooks is obvious, too.
I do agree with the implication that including video undermines part of the value of books, which is to give us a chance to step away from the sensory overload, slow down and relax. To that end, I expect several years from now I'll be reading books on a tablet with the annoying video disabled by default and only turning it back on if I know the video is so outstanding that it actually adds something special to the experience.
Just like I won't use a web browser today without the FlashBlock extension installed.
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