The Digital David and the Gutenberg Goliath: The Rise of the 'Enhanced' e-book

In the recent past, the large-scale production and marketing of e-reading devices, such as Amazon's Kindle, and tablet computers, such as Apple's iPad, have allowed literary works to be presented in a digital reading space, both in the form of standard e-books and, more recently, as enhanced or 'amplified' e-books. Given the rapid rise of the Digital Humanities in the world academy, these products have gained a new prominence, despite continuing fears among literary guardians that the digital reading space might cause fluency disruptions and break the hermeneutic immersion necessary for strong, deep reading. For such scholars, digital reading is seen as irrevocably altering the traditional, paper-based reading experience. It is necessary, however, to acknowledge that the reading landscape has shifted decisively towards the digital sphere, and that the new digital reader - the so-called digital native - absorbs information almost exclusively in a digital, hyperconnected space. How do some of the literary products on the frontier of the digital reading space 'measure up'? Is there room enough only in the nonfiction and educational genres for a digital evolution, as predicted by many publishers and academics, or will fiction, too, absorb digital media into its storytelling praxis?