Nick Cave, Enhanced For iPhone

Twenty years since writing his first novel, 51-year-old Australian rocker Nick Cave is releasing another, titled The Death of Bunny Munro. The book is more than just a story about a sex-mad traveling salesman. It’s also an iPhone app that will change the experience of reading the story.

According to Sam Leith of The Guardian, new technology adjusts the scrolling speed of the text on-screen with the angle of tilt of the phone. It also comes with an audio version read by Cave and a soundtrack of songs composed by the author with long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, a member of The Bad Seeds.

Leith says it could be regarded as a gimmick, like what smell-o-vision was to cinema, but if it catches on, it will subtly change the way we experience fiction: "If you half-read, half-listen to a book, your experience of reading will partly be shaped by the voice of the audiobook; your memories of the text will be coloured by how you took it in, passage by passage."

What do you think? Would you read a book this way? Would having a soundtrack provided by the author entice you to purchase an e-book? Leave your comments below.