Damn Bookjob hybrids. Frakkin scary. Your best friend could actually be a video inside his cover.

The idea sounds really interesting, as long as I have control over whether or not the video plays. I don't want it to turn on every time I turn to that page; that would be horribly annoying. And how would you control the volume?

False advertisement! Laura, I was really looking for the kitten. Where is it?! MOAR KITTEH!

Also, "vooks" sounds like some kind of species related to Wookies. Then again, the alternatives I came up with all sound like medical products, conditions, or Indian surnames. Biveo, Vidook, Boodeo.

There's always Vidbook, which sounds like something the Leapfrog people would name a children's learning toy. Or Videobook, which makes a lot of sense, if not for the fact that it sounds like what your grandpa would call YouTube.

Gizmodo compared this to a mid-90's encyclopedia on cd-rom that would be packaged with every computer sold, and I thought that was pretty apt.

I dunno. "Vooks" sounds marginally better than "boodeos."

All your books are your friends to us.

Not every book will do this, so it won't fundamentally change the act of reading. It's (probably) more expensive to produce, and would be difficult/stupid to do in the cases of the classics. Might be cool in some cases, though. It will definitely give less skilled writers a boost- Stephanie Meyer will love it.

I think it will only work as a novelty; most serious readers would be irritated by it.

I'm going to predict: FAIL

You have to come up with good reasons to put the video in the book.

It might be fun in mystery novels to watch the hero look for clues but I'm thinking this would be most useful in non-fiction where you can someone fillet the fish, purl through the back loop, hook up the speakers, etc.

I'd like to see it used where things are hard to describe. I'd hate to see it used to eliminate the imaginative part of reading books. I could see people using this to show you what all the characters and places look like in fictional novels and that could get annoying.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Oh that's very well put. It would be nice in a non-fiction or how-to book. Sometimes the little drawings in DIY stuff especially can be confusing.

i think it should just be called a vBook. vook casually rolls off the tongue and would be misheard.

And because every other attempt to downgrade literacy in Americans has worked so damn well, so why the heck not?

The products are being called "vooks," a word which sounds sounds like it should be some kind of ethnic slur and not a literary product.

Reminds me of "mook," which is the Japanese term for a non-periodical in a sort of high-end magazine format, usually sold alongside magazines.

Also, countdown to "mediaglyphs."

Reminds me of the absentminded character "Vuk" from the Kim Bodnia films "In China they Eat Dogs" & "Old Men in New Cars"

@Rectilinear Propagation: Yes, that is a brilliant idea. I could see this being a really useful technology in the nonfiction/how-to sector.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_HadCakeAndIceCreamForLunch:

Maybe it's because I spend way too much time around this game, but all I can think of is this:

Sounds like a novelty that won't last long. Not to mention flipping around and about from text to video to shiny would get confusing fast.

Really, sometimes the novel thing with novels is being able to take the descriptions of the author and paint your own picture of what's going on in your head.

Also... vooks? Really?