The Death of Bunny Munro… and traditional reading habits?
September 7, 2009
In most of my publishing-related posts, I’ve lambasted eBooks and eReaders for the primary reason that they fail at emulating printed books. But the fine people at Canongate, in partnership with Apt Studio, have developed a new kind of eBook: Enhanced Editions. Here’s a promo;
The Death of Bunny Munro – Enhanced Edition Promo from Enhanced Editions on Vimeo.
Granted, scepticism is natural given previous eBooks and devices that have promised to revolutionise reading, but this is different. Enhanced Editions is a programme that seems well-aware of the futility of emulating an existing medium. In creating this multimedia product, it adds considerable value and draws the reader’s attention away from the fact that they are reading an intangible novel; rather it immerses them more fully in the text.
I finished reading my hardback copy of the novel today and was listening to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ superb soundtrack to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford throughout. It was a brilliant experience and I am certain that a reading of the book coupled with new compostions would add considerably to Cave’s elegiac prose.
Incidentally, the book is wonderful and I wholly recommend a purchase in either print or digital edition.
