James Patterson's newest novel will self-destruct after 24 hours — theverge.com

Millionaire novelist James Patterson's upcoming novel should deter procrastinators; it will only be available for 24 hours. Advance copies of the book, Private Vegas, will be unlocked digitally for 1,000 readers with secret codes (available now), who will have just one day to read it before it vanishes. The book will be available physically on January 26th. Patterson is calling this the "world's first" self-destructing book, but we've seen attempts like it before: In 1992, William Gibson released the 300-line poem Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) on floppy disk, which was programmed to encrypt itself after a single use. In 2012, the Argentinian publisher Eterna Cadencia began releasing books printed in disappearing ink.

Read More