Sporebook

A Sporebook, a product of the Sporebook Project Ltd, is a three dimensional e-book which contains multiple story lines, unlike a conventional book that follows just one linear story from start to finish. The text contains a number of hyperlinks, each of which provides the reader with the opportunity to choose between multiple paths or threads, each of which may cross or rejoin at any point.

This format provides the opportunity for the same story to be told from the perspective of different characters, or for a character to be followed from the point at which they disappear from the original text to the point at which they reappear. The same Sporebook can be read many times, with the reader choosing a different selection of paths on each occasion.

Because of the vast bulk of material required to produce a Sporebook, they are frequently designed to be written as a collaborative effort. They can never be entirely complete except in the sense that the main story may have a notional beginning and end, and they extend beyond any theoretical boundary as each spore engenders another.
The name is thought to have been derived from a fungal spore, since the old literary material acting as the matrix for a Sporebook is brought to life again through the addition of new threads, in much the same way that dead wood which has been lying dormant for many years is brought back to life by mycelia growing from fungal spores.
Sporebooks may be read on dedicated e-book readers, personal computers, or an increasing number of mobile telephones and handheld devices, and can be downloaded from the Internet in a variety of e-book formats including .pdf or .epub.

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