Oyster Review

So I've been trying to use Oyster for the past week to get a handle on this new app.

At first I was really excited. The books looked good, the app worked well. I was really impressed with the notes on the bottom of the screen that told me the number of pages (iphone pages) left until the next chapter. Often times with ebooks it's hard to know how much further to read. Where is the next chapter? Do I have to go all the way back to the table of contents to find out? With Oyster that is no longer a problem.
The up-swipe is different from other e-readers, but is easy to get used to.

What I realized that may not make me a constant user is that all of the books that are available on Oyster are also easily available at my local library. They are not new releases. The library won't have long hold lists any more that you would have to wait on to check out the book. It just seems like I will be paying $10/month for books that I won't own and can get at my library.

As a librarian I am of course an advocate for libraries and Oyster seems like a competitor, but only if I needed to pay to get library books.

Last week all the National Book Awards finalists were announced. I immediately looked up the synopsis of all the books and then put holds at my library on all the ones that looked like good reads to me. Friday morning I went and picked up about 8 books. It was free and they are fabulous books that are not available on Oyster.

The other problem I had was trying to squeeze in my Oyster reading between my Kindle reading and my library book reading. It was hard. Maybe that's because I have such a large to-be-read-pile, but still it felt like pressure to get my $10.00 worth for the month. There are so many reading apps and ways to read, that forcing my self to have to read on my iphone, felt just that, forced. Forced reading sucks. Just ask any middle schooler. If I own the book or if I borrowed it from the library I feel a pressure to read it, but not a monetary pressure.

I'll give it the month to see if I can't live without it, but I don't think I'll keep the app so far. I'll keep updated on which publishers are going to participate and then revisit my decision again later.