Skip to content

Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

New ways to think about the book?

This week the design and innovation consultancy IDEO proposed three concepts for the future of the book. In a short film they present ipad-like mock ups of ‘Nelson’ – a non-fiction title which pulls in contextual information and comment; ‘Coupland’ – a readers’ network, recommendation engine and library for work; and ‘Alice’ – an interactive fiction. 

The film has divided opinion. Are these brilliant and inspiring new ways to think about the book? Or are they familiar ideas, mocked up on something like the current tech, for us all to usefully interrogate? Or are the ideas old hat, much less than we would hope for from thought-generators like IDEO?

Publishers, writers, readers, agencies – we’d like your opinions. Are you inspired or non-plussed? Have you pitched or been pitched similar ideas? Would you publish these apps? Could you build them? Would you use them? Please post your thoughts below.

Back to Archive