Ebooks which are too cool to be ebooks

[WillAdams]

It seems to me that the ebook equivalent of the coffee table book is the book which can't be done as a typical ebook format (.epub, .mobi, &c.) and which demands being done as a stand-alone app or in some other, freer format.

Here're my candidates for such:

- http://bemboszoo.com/ --- requires Flash --- mute speakers if animal noises aren't appropriate
- http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/jav.../elements.html --- Euclid's Elements, Joyce's Java version
- http://www.atpm.com/4.06/page13.shtml --- I really wish this were still workable and available --- the codex viewer was way cool
- http://periodictable.com/ipad/
- http://motionmountain.net/ --- free physics textbook as a .pdf w/ animation

(from the thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...08#post3045008 )

Add:

- Living Books, now published as: http://wanderfulstorybooks.com/

What others are there?

[DiapDealer]

There's no such thing as an book that's too cool to be an ebook.

The only thing keeping your favorite coffee-table books from becoming ebooks is the fact that no one is yet making a coffee-table whose entire surface is, in fact, a touch-screen display (which can connect to a blue-tooth sound-system) capable of rendering webpages, EPUB3s and/or multimedia Kindle books.

You just need to wait on the coffee-table-ereader is all.

[WillAdams]

My point is, there are ebooks which are too cool, or which have features which aren't supported by standard ebook formats:

- epub
- mobi
- ibooks
- djvu
- azw

That's what I was trying to elaborate on / enumerate.

So to turn it around, "What ebooks have features which prevent them from being done using standard ebook formats?"

[DiapDealer]

My point was to make a joke. I guess I blew it.

[Section8]

Any of these books: http://www.taschen.com/

[Fbone]

Audubon's Birds of America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_of_America

[Jessica Lares]

Hmm... The Living Books were all based on actual books. Some of them used to ship with the paperbacks even. Disney used to package their movies into animated storybook CDs and then different book formats too.

Birds of America is also in ebook format too.

I have Disney's Animated app. It has these little workshops where you can manipulate characters, shapes, and various other things to explore the different technologies they use to make their movies. You could do this with video demos, but the hands on approach is much better.

As for the coffee table reader... Just put legs on the TV and use the slideshow feature.

[SteveEisenberg]

It sounds like this one, which my wife Barbara asked me to be on the eBook lookout for, may one day fit with the thread title:

http://pioneergirlproject.org/

Will there be an eBook version of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography?

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography is a complex book, filled with annotations, appendices, images, and Wilder’s original text, and the development of a faithful eBook version compatible with the most popular eBook devices will be a complicated process. The South Dakota Historical Society Press has not yet set a date for the eventual release of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography as an eBook.

Will there be an audio version of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography?

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography is a complex book, filled with annotations, appendices, images, and Wilder’s original text, and so far, audiobook companies have determined that the complexity of the work cannot be faithfully translated into audio formats. At this time, an audio version does not look likely.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

There's no such thing as an book that's too cool to be an ebook.

The only thing keeping your favorite coffee-table books from becoming ebooks is the fact that no one is yet making a coffee-table whose entire surface is, in fact, a touch-screen display (which can connect to a blue-tooth sound-system) capable of rendering webpages, EPUB3s and/or multimedia Kindle books.

You just need to wait on the coffee-table-ereader is all.

Kinda like this?

http://www.geek.com/news/a-46-inch-m...ether-1557951/

They're still around but now they're called PixelSense.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PixelSense

I'm waiting for the price to come down so I can load it with ASIMOV'S ULTIMATE ROBOT CD-ROM.

http://archive.wired.com/wired/archi...cred.html?pg=2

[Section8]

I've got a 90% off kobo coupon waiting for a kepub of this:

The Rolling Stones (Collector's Edition)
New
The Rolling Stones
SUMO size hardcover in clamshell box, 50 x 50 cm (20 x 20 in.), with 3 fold-outs and silkscreen printed chapter openers, 518 pages
$ 5,000

Limited Collector’s Edition of 1,150 copies (No. 451-1,600), all numbered and signed by the band members of the Rolling Stones.
Produced in collaboration with the band, this SUMO sized book charts the Stones’ remarkable history and outrageously cool lifestyle. With one-of-a-kind archival access, it features over 500 pages of incredible images, illustrations, and a foreword written by President Bill Clinton.

[bgalbrecht]

Oops, fjtorres beat me to it on the Microsoft PixelSense.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Kinda like this?

http://www.geek.com/news/a-46-inch-m...ether-1557951/

They're still around but now they're called PixelSense.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PixelSense

I'm waiting for the price to come down so I can load it with ASIMOV'S ULTIMATE ROBOT CD-ROM.

http://archive.wired.com/wired/archi...cred.html?pg=2

See now that's cool!
Looks a little tall for a coffee table though, no? I didn't see anything about adjustable height, but that puppy appears to be up there in the TV tray realm.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

So to turn it around, "What ebooks have features which prevent them from being done using standard ebook formats?"

I don't know about ebooks, but when I was a kid there were books called "scratch and sniff" books which you could smell. They'd be pretty hard to do as ebooks .

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't know about ebooks, but when I was a kid there were books called "scratch and sniff" books which you could smell. They'd be pretty hard to do as ebooks .

I was thinking scratch-n-sniff, pop-up books and touch-and-feel books.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't know about ebooks, but when I was a kid there were books called "scratch and sniff" books which you could smell. They'd be pretty hard to do as ebooks .

It's coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_qvjwLmrHo

Seriously:

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/jyo...ent-technology