The Hobbit Issued as Enhanced eBook

One of the foremost prototypical fantasy novels of the modern era has been treated to a new edition for the digital age. J.R.R. Tolkien's perennial 1937 children's classic The Hobbit was released today as an enhanced edition for iBooks and Kindle, complete with 28 full color interactive images and four audio recordings of the author reading (and singing!) excerpts from the story.

The four recordings are:

• "Chip the Glasses and Crack the Plates!" (sung)
• "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold"
• "Roast Mutton"
• "Riddles In The Dark"

New high resolution images of Tolkien's illustrations are included for the first time, which can be zoomed to full size by double tapping. Many of the original black and white drawings also now have alternate overlays colored by H. E. Riddett, which can be accessed and dismissed with a single tap or swipe. Among these are some unused drawings and several images of Tolkien's first handwritten manuscripts, complete with doodles and margin notes.

In addition, a new introduction by Christopher Tolkien examines the writing of the book and discusses many of the sketches and drawings that are included.

NOTE: KINDLE BUYERS BEWARE!!!

While this new edition has been released for both the Kindle and iBooks (and apparently soon the Nook), the interactive content is currently only available in iBooks. A notice beneath the book cover image on the Kindle edition page states that "Audio/Video" content is available only on iOS devices, but whether this refers to the interactive illustrations or just the audio is unclear. I'm guessing that the latter is the case, as it would be difficult to justify selling this edition as an "enhanced" ebook without at least one of the added features included. Even to release it as a semi-crippled version of what it was intended to be is pretty sketchy.

It is also uncertain if this is just a temporary glitch in the KF8 rollout, or if the enhanced features will be forthcoming for the Kindle edition at some point down the road. I would presume they will be for the reason I just mentioned (some serious backlash is certain to ensue otherwise), but since it isn't mentioned there's no way to be sure. Consequently I bought the iBooks edition, which works better on the larger screen anyway.