The interactive e-book as the one Al Gore published with the help of a star-up, one with voice notes, interactive graphics, high definition interactive video and audio was and is a great idea but got swept up when the start-up got bought out and put under the carpet. As good as it was it did not fundamentally change one basic attribute of storytelling: it is both linear and sequential.

Life is neither linear nor sequential. Individual observer, in other words a conscious sentient person (a human) does not actually perceive events linearly nor sequentially. Information (story line or plot) is continuously altered as more information comes in and perception of the situation changes in accordance to new data. This in itself may seem sequential but that is a superficial fallacy, depending on the other informational paths that we come into contact with we change the content and the coherency of the story (our informational identity). Information from past events and told and retold by other observers can dramatically change the way the story goes and is told. People intertwine their stories in an entangled web to determine common highways of information making up stories that eventually form into a group or public perception of something intangible as truth.

The point is, none of this is reflected in narrative in linear static books even the ones that use foreshadowing, flashback, and try to develop several plots at once. Life is non-deterministic because we have choices. Each time we make a choice, however ridiculously insignificant it would seem, we choose a unique path in the information pathway of the universe. To reflect this effect and make the reader of any storytelling narrative there is a clear need for an interactive user to have the ability to determine a multiple choice plot line. Obviously this would be difficult to do with a paper book because one would have to refer the read to jump around through a voluminous hefty tome to the designated page numbers.

In electronic books the matter of volume is of no consequence, what’s more navigation through such a multiple choice plot chapter per chapter, can make a book unique each time it is experience by the reader (because of differences in the plot-line, not due to a new perception of them) if the number of permutations in the story is large enough. One could read the same book dozens of times and each time experience a different informational pathway. I’ll illustrate the idea on the most simplistic literally art-form: the romance novel. Generally such works pertain to two main characters who interact to develop romantic involvement and end up in coitus. Now this informational path could be quite different each time such a novel is read. For instance after introducing both characters the reader has a choice of how they’ll first become aware of each other. Depending on each choice, different path becomes available, some potentially leading to common threads. There could be multiple endings or all of it could narrow down into an informational bottle neck that implies some predestined fate. The book could be re-read each time as having a different unique plot line each time.

This is not a pitch to produce uniqueness of plot in order to increase the reuse value of literally publication, it is a call for a true literally reflection of the human experience. The sooner it becomes a reality, the more people will realize their intrinsic informational nature: their true selves.

Though it is true that many read to find commonalities, fact is that accumulation of common cultural, scientific or technical information need not be replaced by this literally form - it must come in addition to it.