The coming trend in e-books: video.
The most obvious way technology has changed the literary world is with electronic books. Over the past year devices like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader have gained in popularity. But the digital editions displayed on these devices remain largely faithful to the traditional idea of a book by using words — and occasional pictures — to tell a story or explain a subject.
The new hybrids add much more. In one of the Simon & Schuster vooks, a fitness and diet title, readers can click on videos that show them how to perform the exercises. A beauty book contains videos that demonstrate how to make homemade skin-care potions.
"Vooks" sounds like there's vampire involvement.
The linked article is about novels, where short videos seem to be included mainly for the imagination-deprived. Textbooks on the other hand seem more promising. How many 1-minute demonstrations, or five-minute interviews would go in a typical textbook chapter? I can imagine casts floating around the page like a "Harry Potter" newspaper.
