“This note will self-destruct in 10 seconds,” is perhaps the most clichéd trope of spy fiction. We've all seen this before from the detached perspective of a third party looking in, but what if we were the ones who had a time limit to finish reading something before it exploded? Thriller author James Patterson — whose novels seemingly make up about 75% of the books sold at airports and train stations — has released a new book titled Private Vegas that comes with a 24-hour countdown that destroys the book once it reaches zero.
Technically speaking, only 1,000 e-books purchased from Patterson's website will “self-destruct” or disappear from the user's tablet/e-reader once the clock runs out. But for the price of $294,038, one die-hard fan can purchase an actual bomb-rigged book and experience the tension of racing to complete the story before the book truly explodes, all under the supervision of a dedicated bomb squad. The steep $294,038 will also cover a meal with Patterson himself, as well as a luxury flight to the “undisclosed location” where the bomb-reading is set to occur.
The publicity stunt aims to infuse heightened emotions into the reading experience by trigger the reader's adrenaline. The idea being that adrenaline intensifies your attachment to a person or object. A study from a few years ago determined that subjects who crossed a perilous bridge to reach another person, formed a stronger attraction to that person than the subject who merely walked over.
What's interesting about Patterson's use of “self-destructing” e-book, however, is that this is essentially a form of digital rights management cleverly disguised as a hyped-building mechanism as the 1000 e-books were free. Considering the man publishes anywhere between five to ten books a year, I suppose some new sort of shtick was in order.
Source: Wired
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