App Profile: Bookshop.org Ebooks

Nat__ice

Rating: 4/5

I’m so excited to be able to switch to Bookshop and support local bookstores! I attempted to read a book on here and I have a couple issues. I don’t understand why vertical scroll only works when my iPad is upright vertically. When I read on my iPad, I read with it flipped horizontally since most iPad cases have a stand to hold them up horizontally. It would be easier for couch and bed reading if there was vertical scroll no matter what way the iPad is turned. I’m a big fan of continuous scroll horizontally and hate having to “turn the page”. Another thing I’d love to see is more fonts, as I’ve seen a few others mention. It would also be interesting to see if there was a way to change font color. I enjoy reading in dark mode, but have noticed some other apps opt for a light gray for font color because stark white on the black background can be harsh on the eyes. Overall, I’m glad that there seems to be regular updates to concerns that others have mentioned. I know this is a new app, so I’m excited to see what improvements will be made in the future!

Waiteforit

Rating: 5/5

I love having an alternative to the mainstream app and have shared it with many friends and encouraged all to support. Suggestions for improvement: 1) allow for orientation lock for those of us who read in bed, especially as it seems to wildly lose my place if it switches from horizontal to vertical. 2) improve the ability to find last place read to either when switching between devices or when you accidentally tap the screen causing it to jump to some kind of crazy place. My work around has been to highlight a few words periodically and whenever I leave off so I can find my place again if it jumps to some mystery spot. I later go back and delete superfluous highlights. 3) partner with library systems so they can buy from you also and I can use your app for library ebooks. 4) find a way for readers to share a purchased book with a short list of friends like we used to do in the good old days with “real” books. This is the one huge downside to digital media and makes me reluctant to pay full price for books if I’m the only one who gets to read them. Best wishes for continued expansion and success!

APRugby12

Rating: 4/5

While it’s great to support indie bookstores with this app rather than the megacorp, the features and user experience leaves much to be desired. I love a continuous scroll and prefer reading on my phone for this feature, issue is that this app does not let you scroll through chapters, instead leaving the “next chapter” button to block the first words of the end of the chapter in the bottom left. Additionally, there are some smaller chapters in the book that I’m reading that do not register and finishing, so the button does not pop up at all. What this means is I have to remember what the chapter’s title is to find the next one in the table of contents to advance, this is made all the more frustrating because the table of contents does not have page numbers. While I appreciate the cause here, there is a clear reason why most ebook readers use other apps as the lack of polish is very apparent.