Check it out! I know this is just the tip of the  iceberg, but it’s still very cool. It’s interactive fiction: “a story you can talk to.”

Have a go and let me know what you think.

I think: exciting, engaging, interactive… You can read it with a friend and not feel like you’re waiting for them to finish. There’s spooky music and sound effects. There’s mystery clues. And you have to follow your nose for the story to continue. I love it.

I love Ye Olde Fashioned books, don’t get me wrong. But, having moved house about a billion times in the last ten years, proper-paper-woah-that’s-heavy-oh-no-get-me-to-a-chiropractor books do have their limitations.

That said, a recent post by Angela Meyer (Show Me Your Spines) showcased the pile of books beside her bed, and looking at the pile made me realise: lugging paper books around does have a bonus.

Paper books must be shelved, stacked, put. They can’t hide away in your hard drive. They are in your face, screaming “Read me” or “Remember me” or just “Whee, aren’t books great.”

Fergus already has a stack of books he likes to “read”, and because we don’t have a shelf for them yet they generally flop around on the couch/floor/rug/table, spread out to take up maximum surface area, and thus to demand maximum attention. We’ve just ordered an iPad from the US, more as a plaything than a serious investment in e-bookery, but it will be interesting to see which of the two he prefers.