Shelf Control: Enjoy Some Of The Best Humor Writing With McSweeney's
April 1, 2013
Happy April Fools' Day! Since today is the day most of us go out of our way to play practical jokes and hoaxes on one another, I figure that a playful app is in order for Shelf Control. So, this week's edition of Shelf Control is dedicated to the delightfully playful app McSweeney's.
Released way back in September 2009, McSweeney's is the official iOS app of the San Francisco-based publishing house of the same name.
The app is free to download for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It comes with a one-month subscription to the Small Chair, which can be reactivated for six months and renewed every six months thereafter for $2.99.
If you can't see the video embedded above, please click here.
What's the Small Chair, you ask? Well, it's that thing in the app's icon. Seriously, though, the Small Chair is a weekly selection from across the McSweeney's network of publications.
The Small Chair may contain stories from the quarterly literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. It may contain interviews from the monthly magazine The Believer. And it may contain short films from the quarterly DVD magazine Wholphin. In any case, whatever you get through the Small Chair is not available online, as opposed to …
Articles from the literature and humor site McSweeney's Internet Tendency are also included in the app. Note that these articles are and will remain free even after your Small Chair subscription expires.
One of my favorite sites to visit on the Web, McSweeney's Internet Tendency is home to a myriad of funny and tongue-in-cheek pieces. A couple of the most memorable ones happen to pertain to the iPhone and the iPad. There's "The iPhone: A User's Guide" and there's "Something is Wrong with My iPad: I Still Hate My Life." Either piece definitely makes for great reading this April Fools' Day.
Again, McSweeney's is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and is available in the App Store for free. It also offers in-app purchases for select e-books from the McSweeney's publishing house.
As always, if you have suggestions for Shelf Control, please feel free to email me at aldrin@appadvice.com or simply leave a comment below.
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