The vook: so you can wead and ratch at the same time

It's called a vook - a mix of book and video. It's something to make the most of your new-found, Kindle and iPad-inspired interest in reading books on a screen.

But the problem with reading - even on a fancy new gizmo - is that it's just, well, a bit boring. Words, words, words, with nothing to look at and nothing to listen to.

Until now. The vook brings you words with added video. So just when you're getting a teensy bit fed up with reading, along comes a nice bit of film to give you a break.

So will it catch on? Well, apart from getting people comfortable with the name (which the founders pronounce like 'look' rather than 'Luke'), the main problem with a business like this is getting a critical mass of content available. Because customers want to feel the idea is already established and they're ahead of the game, not just part of some crazy experiment.

To that end, last week's news that Interview with a Vampire writer Anne Rice has sold the vook rights to one of her short stories is a step in the right direction. Rice's offering will add to the current small selection of vooks which features cooking, fitness, romantic novellas and a few children's classics.

Of course, the vook is a better business idea for some people than others. It could be great for people with lots of video content in massive archives that they're trying to think how to make the most of. Ring any bells?

Because where for publishers like Simon and Schuster (one of the partners of the originators of the vook) it's expensive new video they need to add to their writers' words, for broadcasters like the BBC, which already have the video, generating a few words to string the videos together would be a lot easier, and make a lot more sense commercially.

Indeed, many existing BBC books which go with series only need to have the clips integrated, and, hey presto, you've got a whole new line in BBC vooks. Or Bvooks.