Penguin CEO John Makinson gave a first look demo at some forthcoming books to the iPad’s bookstore.  Robert Andrews of  PaidContent.co.uk reported that many of Penguin’s iPad books seem to hardly resemble “books” at all, but rather very interactive experiences.

In fact, Dan Nasowitz at Fast Company reports, “Penguin doesn’t even think these things are books. I know that because Penguin intends to sell this digital content in the app store, as individual apps, not in the iBooks bookstore.”

The children’s books demonstrated allowed readers to “interact” with the content of the book by shaking, dragging and touching objects to play music or sounds, color objects and open new pages.

The interactive features will not be limited to just kid’s books.  According to Andrews’ report, the Vampire Academy “book” offers live chat between readers and is described as “an online community for vampire lovers”.

The Paris travel guide even has features designed for the iPad.  It will switch to street map view when placed on a table.

But what about “regular” books?  Makinson said that Pride and Prejudice could conceivably come with videos of Keira Knightly and Colin Firth (from the Pride and Prejudice movie).

According to Andrews’ report, Makinson feels that the iPad opens up new doors that the traditional ebooks do not offer at present.  Penguin appears poised to take advantage of the new platform.

“We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do,” Makinson said.  He believes this will make consumers more willing to buy ebooks.  ”The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers.”

Check out this video demonstrating some of Penguin’s upcoming books.

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