Digital Book Burning

Burning books is flavour of the month, so why not extend it to the world of digital books? This means that book burning can be a very private affair or one that is simultaneously shared through synchronised social networking.

Here's how it works. You download and pay for your book as normal, but if you select the "Burn after reading" option, you get a discount on the sale, because this book is not going to last long.

After a set period of time (price controlled), your book begins to burn away. You have several options you can select to control this conflagration, ranging from instant vaporisation, through to a highly selective removal of one word or even letter at a time.

You could for example, elect to have all the punctuation smoulder away, emitting tiny trails of smoke across each page as you turn them. Or perhaps you don't like any words longer than four letters, so these all erupt into yellow flames and plumes of sooty ash. When you tilt your device, the smart flames and smoke change direction accordingly. You can choose to watch this sequentially one page at a time to savour the process, or simply select the "entire book option".

When the book has been reduced to ash you may store its remains in a little digital library coffin, along with an appropriate obituary.