In Penguin's "
We tell stories" project, 6 books are revisited by contemporary authors, artists, and webdesigners to create original interpretations or variations.
One of my favorites uses google maps to re-tell
the 39 Steps by John Buchan in an interactive animation called "
the 21 steps" by Charles Cumming.
For the moment of course this is only accessible from a pc with an internet connection but imagine what sort of interactive stories are waiting for us in the near future ! The epub spec already supports multimedia elements like audio files and flash animations, and dedicated reading devices with the ability to handle these media are probably closer than we think. While this series is presented for entertainment purposes I could imagine content-rich interactive textbooks for children and artistic "installations" in ebooks which would allow you to create a more personal relationship with artwork.
What do you think ? "Text only please, all those gimmicks are for kids", or "Holy high tech batman, it's the future (and i love it)" ? What kinds of interactive books would you like to see ?