Whenever I admit to being one of those digital-publishing-type-people, I’m usually told there’s two crucial things I’ve overlooked:

1) eBooks don’t smell of anything. Books should be smelly.

2) I can’t read an eBook in the bath. I must be able to read in the bath.

Yup, readers are a very demanding breed, and digital can’t quite cater for these two demands… not yet. eBooks have made great strides over the last couple of years by brazenly plundering everything that print books do so well – bookmarking, note-taking, page turning, sharing and lending. It may be that waterproofing and scratch & sniff are all that’s needed to win over the sceptics.

But so far the plagiarism has all been one way. Isn’t it time that print books started borrowing from digital publishing? Could 2011 be the year of ‘augmented reality’?

Check back on Monday for more. And for homework, a free drink at the next BookMachine party for the first person to find the hidden info in the image – just add your answer to the comments section.