Melville House Hybrid Books

The press release for Melville House's HybridBooks came out like six months ago, but I just discovered it today, and I'm kind of excited about it--plus it kind of relates to my post yesterday about alternative texts.

A sample page explains that "HybridBooks are a union of print and electronic media designed to provide a unique reading experience by offering additional curated material--Illuminations--which expand the world of the book through text and illustrations." The press release says "the program offers extensive ancillary digital materials, such as essays, maps, illustrations, and other primary source material" to enhance reading and encourage multidimensional interaction with the text.

The additional materials are linked by QR code in the book. It looks like just one code will take you to all of the "Illuminations." While I think it might be more meaningful to have specific material linked on the pages to which it is relevant, I'm really interested to see how it works. I'd really like to get my hands on one.

Have any of you tried a HybridBook? What did you think?