Bullet Proof Books? Electric Literature Shoots Books With A Gun (VIDEO)

"Can a book save your life?" Asked Tom Shillue, spokesperson for the online literary sensation Electric Literature, in a new promotional video released today. In the video, the Electric Lit team literally shoots various books from 2010 with a handgun to see which would best halt a speeding bullet.

Books shot included Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom," David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet," Rick Moody's "The Four Fingers of Death," and an Amazon Kindle eReader.

Electric Literature gained upwards of 100,000 followers on Twitter, and a stellar reputation as digital publishing innovators, by publishing a complete story by author Rick Moody on Twitter. Electric Lit allows subscribers access to five stories four times a year on "every viable medium," such as in print or in formats suitable for the Kindle and iPhone, as well as an audio version.

So, which book fared best?

WATCH:

Comments

[brux]

04:49 PM on 02/11/2011

This is one of those stupid stories that makes stupid people think guns are for fun and toys to make jokes with, or act dangerous ... oooh, shooting books ... the whole symbology is wrong and toxic. Why is this idiocy a news story. Bad judgement all the way around from destroying books to pubishing a story about it.

[brux]

04:47 PM on 02/11/2011

Pure idiocy.

[RRofihe]

09:21 PM on 01/09/2011

It's too bad the Electric Literature people didn't take a shot at LOST AND FOUND: Stories from New York, Edited by Thomas Beller (853 printed pages, plus 13 blank ones.) True, it carries a 2009 pub date, but in truth did not appear until early 2010 -- why? Well, Tom, up here in the Anderbo.com office I share with his enterprise Open City Magazine & Books, had mentioned to one of the proofreaders, "I want this book to be BULLET-PROOF!" And, when the book finally arrived in early 2010 from the printers, it was in two-packs (Tupac's?) -- that is, two copies shrink-wrapped back to back, for a total of 1732 pages! Now, the cover price is a reasonable $15.95 for one copy, but the word in the neighborhood (Mr. Beller doesn't know this) is that if you arrange to meet me outside the office at the corner of SoHo's Lafayette & Prince Streets, I will hand over a Tupac -- I mean two-pack -- for $20, cash only, or six two-packs for a Franklin.