The Interactive Book: A Guide to the Interactive Revolution
Just how interactive can a printed book really be? That's one of the many questions addressed in this intriguingly playful compendium. Celia Pearce delivers a core dump of her thoughts on interactivity and related topics. She is bright, insightful, and funny, and her thoughts are well worth browsing--which is the only sensible way to approach this decidedly nonlinear book. It does have a structure--an alphabetical one with essays from "A Life of One's Own" to "Word to the Motherboard: Computers and Literacy"--but the sections are linked as if they were hypertext. When you come to the end of one essay, you'll find the pages you could jump to for a related topic. The term "essay" is also a little misleading as you'll also find riffs, anecdotes, philosophical musings, and comic insights. Topics range from cyberhistory to art to game design to the pros and challenges of virtual reality. What you won't find is dry pontification about interactivity. Just an enjoyable way to experience it without having to plug in anything but your mind.