CSI: Future of reading?

There is an interesting blurb in last Friday's Shelf Awareness. It notes:

CSI: Publishing Industry. Anthony Zuiker, creator of the numerous CSI television series, "has made a seven-figure deal with Dutton to create a series of three suspense-thriller 'digital novels,'" according to Variety, which reported that the new enture "is a publishing hybrid that broadens traditional book reading into a multiplatform experience that includes filmed components and an interactive social networking site.""I want to give traditional crime novel readers a more immersive experience," Zuiker said, noting that the online features give "publishing a chance to catch up with the YouTube generation that has lost passion for reading.""I personally don't have the attention economy to read a 250-page crime novel from start to finish," he continued. "I realized that the way I'd like to consume a novel is to be rewarded every couple of chapters by seeing something visual that enhances the narrative."

A step closer to born digital. It sounds like a cool idea though -- perhaps something lke the way pictures work in printed books. Such interactive content or "digital book models" could be particularly useful in travel books. I have already seen some similar type of content appear in some of the health sciences. Perhaps the CSI textbook series in forensics is next???