An Amazing transformation

Waterstones is taking the softly softly approach to introducingmultimedia to its book buying customers. Nicholas Blincoe goes to Leeds totake a look at the store's Amazing Multimedia Showcase which aims tointroduce the joys of multimedia to its computer-shy visitors.

Anyone hoping to feel the white heat of a technological revolution in the multimedia section of the Waterstones bookstore in Leeds is going to be disappointed. The Waterstones approach is nothing if not sensitive and discrete. It's not that the giant bookselling chain is overly timid.

On the contrary, Sally Taplin, head of the multimedia project, is full of fighting talk. She says: