Seeking to bridge the gap between print and the Internet, Other Press, independent publishers of critically acclaimed books, revealed today the Play Book, an innovative, immersive technology designed to allow web surfers a multimedia-rich interaction with the publishing house's newly released titles.

Rather than offer disparate supportive content such as book excerpts, podcasts or video, the Play Book will combine all of these elements in a new design that also features Flash animation and other advanced web-design tools to allow for an interactive discovery of the book's narrative environment and encourage readers to explore the title at their own pace and according to their own passions.

"When we first conceived of the Play Book," said Judith Gurewich, Other Press's publisher, "we asked ourselves how we can translate one media experience - that of reading a book - into another, that of surfing the web. We wanted to do more than just put up an author interview or an excerpt. We wanted to let readers feel like they were entering the book's world."

The first title to receive the Play Book treatment is "Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life," by Michael Greenberg. Readers who visit Greenberg's website (www.michaelgreenberg.org) will be able to interact with a map of New York, dotted with locations mentioned in the book's essays. As readers click on each location, they will be able to read relevant quotes and view artwork commissioned especially to capture the sentiments conveyed by each particular story.

"We believe that the Play Book allows readers not only to read bits of Michael Greenberg's work," said Gurewich, "but to experience the sensibility the book conveys, and encounter its considerable emotional pull even before reading it. We hope and believe the Play Book will prove a much more effective tool of marketing literature to a new generation of media consumers more accustomed to the Internet than to books, and we're proud to be on the forefront of this important experiment."

Future Other Press titles that will be presented as Play Books include Irene Vilar's "Impossible Motherhood," Simon Mawer's Booker-shortlisted novel "The Glass Room," Monika Fagerholm's "The American Girl," and Ninno Ricci's "The Origin of Species."