In many ways flash undid the cause of books on the web. It left such a bad aftertaste that many authors chose to ripping their books apart and turning them into plain (even ugly) websites; often ending up with poor readership and lower than expected sales.

I wish web had better support for books with a spine_url to hold and thread pages on. A tag that considers all semantic and interaction elements of a book, especially now when the web isn't limited to desktops alone. Wouldn't it be nice to bring up web and books together like a single unified resource?

This will require us to reconsider our assumptions about design and accessability and understand what is good for long form storytelling. But that's a discussion for another place and time. Let's look at the third and the last blurry difference between books and apps: a database.