I am a great advocate of anything that encourages people to read. I believe that the ‘written’ word has an extraordinary ability to create new worlds and bring imaginations to life. And I think life (and my commute) has a little less magic and colour without them.

This week I found two inspired ideas that are putting a new and modern spin on word play.

The first is BiblioTech, a bookless public library system. Conceived by a County Court Judge and book lover who saw ‘the writing on the wall’ for his papery passions, the library was inspired by the Apple Store experience and will be for visitors to loan e-books and, if needed, an e-reader. The aim is to have at least 10,000 titles available upon opening.

Image source: www.springwise.com

Me ‘n’ Audrey would be in our element!

The second is WonderbooksTM, a clever combination of wordsmithery and game play which encourages gamers to interact with the world of books, and more specifically, Miranda Goshawk’s Book of SpellsTM. Using augmented reality technology, ‘readers’ can experience thousands of different tales as they zoom through the halls of Hogwarts, words leaping from the page as they create their very own individual journeys.

Image source www.zavvi.com

I may never get off the train!

Speaking of journeys, I’m currently reading a fantastic book about the London Underground, delving into the origins of each of the 268 stations on the network (which incidentally took Andi James and Steve Wilson 16 hours 29 minutes and 13 seconds to visit – yes all of them – in 2011’s Tube Challenge).

Quite frankly, I’d rather read the book – did I mention it’s fabulous?