The publication of a new book by Stephen Fry was always going to be interesting in digital terms. And the myFry app for his memoir The Fry Chronicles carries the weight of expectation.

Why? Fry inhabits an almost singular position. We live in a Stephen Fry world. It’s slightly fuzzy, very nice and quite interesting. He commands us with a rod of benevolence. He is a comfortable presence in the hallowed Royal Albert Hall, beamed into independent cinemas that bring drinks and snacks to your seat, and he exudes an almost nostalgic air. But then there’s his flipside, seemingly incongruous at first: the searing intellect and razor-sharp humourist, the tech head, the Apple devotee bar none.

The challenge – or I would argue gift –  for his publisher is that he straddles a divide between the old and new, the analogue and digital.

So yes, put out a nice fat twenty quid hardback with a cover foregrounding him and his big, benign facial features and floppy hair and a corduroy jacket and stripy socks and a simple wooden chair – so far so fusty, familiar and, well, analogue.

But then be compelled to create an app which must itself be intrinsically innovative.

And so it came to pass! The app was announced on thebookseller.com yesterday (http://bit.ly/c2q3jr) :

‘The [myFry] app employs a "tagged colourwheel" which allows readers to explore the book in a non-linear fashion. Readers can find their way through the book in a choice of four colour-coded categories: people, subjects, feelings and Fryisms. So, for example, within the "people" section, one can search for everything in the book to do with actor Hugh Laurie, or within the "subjects" section, for everything to do with Fry's Cambridge years, or the TV series "Blackadder."’

What’s the most interesting part of that paragraph? Well ‘Blackadder’ really, because Fry’s turns in those series were second to only Rik Mayall as Lord Flashheart: http://bit.ly/apGjp6

Hilarity side, what really drew my eye was the use of the term ‘non-linear’. I was on a panel at Foyles last Saturday as part of the Independent Alliance Day, where Jonathan Ruppin (web editor of Foyles.co.uk) commented that people have been telling stories since the stone age, distinguished by ‘a beginning, middle and an end’ and that this want – this need – isn’t likely to change as we become increasingly caught up in digital forms for books.

I’m not inclined to disagree. What is a story if not a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end? But what I think we’ll see in the coming months are publishers playing with the notion of linearity and non-linear reading experiences. I foresee a gold rush on iPad content and this will be a key part of it.

The greatest job for publishers is getting their works into a digital format (that’s a given) but for publishers who are seeking to push the boundaries the onus has to be to experiment with the very way we read. Enhanced ebooks are one such experiment but often they are pilloried as Special Edition DVDs. ‘And who watches the extras on DVDs?!’, the naysayers cry. Well I do for one. The enhanced ebook debate is too often marred by the people who feel they have to decry something they personally don’t like as unacceptable for the general populace. These people really should STFU and let others enjoy it.

Enhanced ebooks are an area to watch and invest in (Apple for one are extremely interested) but now we must explore the world of the non-linear in earnest.

To put it another way I’m advocating trying digital ways of reading which are created as much by a reader as the writer. The writer will provide the architecture, the narrative paths and choices but then it is the reader’s choice and the work is partly realised by them.

I’m not saying this is a new idea, it goes back to literary theorist Roland Barthes’s classic argument from the late seventies in his essay ‘Death of the Author’ that a text is shaped, given definition and comes alive only when it is read – that the author is an absence.* But it is an idea that can be much more thoroughly explored on multimedia devices. The publishing world and the gaming world are eyeing each other more and more lustily. Let’s start consummating the relationship.

There are existing candidates for digital adventures in non-linearity. Penguin might well plunder its Puffin series of Fighting Fantasy (Choose Your Own Adventures-style) Gamebooks, by the estimable Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone: http://amzn.to/cnc9wf.

Or how about B.S. Johnson’s literary masterpiece THE UNFORTUNATES? The book-in-a-box with a set beginning and end, but a loose series of 25 pamphlet-like chapters within that can be read in any order the reader chooses as they navigate a coruscating journey through Nottingham, a football match, desire and grief.

It might not be the end of the narrative of a beginning, a middle and an end, but it certainly is time for digital publishers to choose a new adventure.

*Thus Barthes gave us the best response to the classic classroom question: ‘But did the author mean that?’ The answer being: who cares?!