Next generation of digital books

TED recently announced the availability of TED Books. I quote from their site:

Shorter than a novel, but longer than an article — a TED Book is a great way to feed your craving for ideas anytime.

A TED Book is to a book as a TEDTalk is to a lecture: It’s shorter and more personal, more direct and engaging. And the new TED Books app (coming soon) lets our authors blend their words with multimedia extras that enhance your understanding. Look for rich images, audio, video and social features, along with links and documentation to provide a broader view.

The TED Books video gives you a sneak peek of the TED Books App.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j-5y1QoswKo]

Digital medium allows for different kinds of contents (images, hyperlinks, videos, animations, text, etc) to be packaged as a single book.

What I like & dislike about TED Books is that they are short books, which could be read quickly in a short span of time. Though this is great idea if you have some additional time and would like to completely know about a particular idea or thought, when done on a consistent basis, it reduces our tolerance for the longer versions of the books and that slowly reduce the market for the 300 page novel or a 400 page management book.

If these books prove to be a success (I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be), can then accelerate the trend for smart books with rich digital content.

We might one day also see an interactive book which is personalized for every single reader by providing options for them to choose and then delivering the content based on the choices made.

Whatever happens, this is an exciting period for all book publishers, authors and even more so for readers.

Keep reading and have fun!

Do let me know your thoughts by leaving your comments on this post!..