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Category: Books
Developer: Magnetism Studios
Requirements: iPhone 2.1 software
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch
File Size: 6.6MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $0.99

This is a weird review to write. I’m not sure if I should be reviewing the app, the book, or the book and the app. Because, yes, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a book before it was a Brad Pitt movie. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who you may remember as the guy who wrote The Great Gatsby, which you read in American lit in high school. Or will have to read in American lit in high school. Or should have to read in American lit in high school. Seriously, it’s a good book. Write a report on it. Get an A. Everyone will be happy.

Now that Benjamin Button is a movie, more people will be reading the book. Movies do that, which is the good thing about movies. People often complain about how movies are never as good as the book, but who really cares? If you enjoyed the book, you don’t need the movie. But if you’ve never read the book, perhaps the movie will convince you to, and is that a bad thing?

I’m not going to review either, here. If you want to know how the movie is, see what Roger Ebert has to say. He’s the only film critic worth trusting, anyway. If you want to know how the book is, buy this app and read it yourself. Seriously, it’s quite short; 105 tiny little iPhone pages. You could read it all in one sitting, but you won’t have to. The app remembers your previous location each time you launch it. Unlike the Choose Your Own Adventure app I just reviewed, however, you can’t create your own bookmarks. Therefore, only one person can read it at a time unless you’re willing to continually flip pages to get to your spot.

There are actually a couple of problems like that. Launching the app, you get the book’s cover. From there you can get to the index, which offers the option to resume reading, read a bonus story by Fitzgerald (Tarquin of Cheapside), learn about the author, see more apps by Magnetism, or view the film’s trailer. This is all well and good, I suppose. The film trailer takes you to Apple’s QuickTime trailer site, but closes the Benjamin Button app in the process. So, you have to quit Mobile Safari and relaunch the book. It’s annoying, but it’s a mistake you’ll only make once. The other options keep you within the app. But do you notice what’s missing? A table of contents. When you start reading this book, you can’t advance to a specific chapter or page automatically (beyond the resume reading option). There’s not even anything here to indicate how long the book is. Would you want to start reading a book without knowing how long it is? Good thing I told you earlier, huh?

Once you start reading, though, it’s fairly well done. Each page is contained within the iPhone’s screen, so you don’t have to scroll up and down to see everything. When you’re ready to turn the page, simply swipe to the left. Want to go back, swipe right. There’s no page turning effect of which to speak; it’s more like you’re removing file cards from a stack. But that’s fine. What’s important here is that the effect not get in the way of reading, and it doesn’t.

The look of the book is quite nice. The cover is done in a classic gold-embossed leather look that would fit in quite well with my Easton Press books. The pages themselves have what appears to be dark brown text on a slightly tanned paper (think softly textured resume paper) that’s quite easy to read. It’s bright enough to read under light, but not so bright that it bugs you when reading in the dark. The text may be a bit small for some readers, though, and there’s no way to adjust the type size.

By and large, I love the idea of books on the iPhone. I’m that guy who keeps a paperback of Scottish folk tales in my glove compartment so I have something to do if my car breaks down or my wife is taking forever in the drugstore. And although I love having an actual book in my hands, I won’t discount the convenience of the iPhone. But is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button one to keep handy? I suppose. It’s kind of a dorky premise for a story (I certainly wouldn’t want to age backwards, because I don’t want to know when I’m going to do die, and it’d be terrible to ever be the same age as my parents), and is nowhere near Fitzgerald’s best. However, his gift for imagery and dialogue do lift the story beyond its premise.

The app itself is also missing some basic index and text features that could make reading it a bit inconvenient. But, it’s only 99 cents, which makes it very easy to overlook any shortcomings.