Gerard Lakwijk, publisher of several books about various locations in the Netherlands, has taken it upon himself to compile an all-encompassing anthology of the country’s past, present and future. The book, Beautiful Holland, features pages and pages of lavish photos and illustrations of the country’s scenery – all of which has been made interactive with Augmented Reality.

From tulips to bicycles, windmills and Rembrandt – not a single stone of Dutch culture is left unturned. Using the Layar Creator, Beautiful Holland has been transformed into a fully-interactive book, allowing readers to delve deeper and bring photos to life with informative videos.

The book has had 100,000 copies printed in 10 languages, including Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and Russian. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was recently photographed taking a look through the book.

“We heard about Layar from a friend when we started with the book,” said Claudia Lakwijk, Commercial Director for Beautiful Holland. “We looked at the website and found it a very nice addition for our book.”

The book is a fine example of how Augmented Reality can add excitement to everyday items. The interactive videos added with Layar help make an ordinary book extraordinary.