Classics2Go Collection: Great idea, but fix the damn bugs!

I really want to love this app, and I kind of do. At the moment, $0.99 gives you 45 high-quality classic literary titles at your fingertips. So even though I’m going to point out some of this app’s flaws, make no mistake about it–this is worth the cost.

Classics2Go Collection is exactly what it sounds like…a collection of books that are formatted to read on the iPhone. Some of the titles include “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” ‘A Christmas Carol,” and “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” just to name a few.

Notice the reality-defying book stackage...major bug.

Each title comes complete with a table of contents and its own cover art, and each book is well formatted for the iPhone. If you’re the literary type that would always like a book handy but doesn’t want to get into the more traditional (and expensive) eBook revolution, this one is a must have.

That being said, there are bugs galore with this app and a couple of serious design flaws. Lets take the last part first.

In navigating a title, you will notice the odd lack of buttons and options. Flicking your fingers left and right turns the pages (with a nice animation), and there are always buttons to go back to your bookshelf or view the table of contents. There are NOT, however, simple buttons for moving through the pages, and after flicking your finger for a while the process becomes annoying. I’d like to be able to flip through pages faster and with less hassle with a forward and back arrow.

Also, it would be nice to add a “multiple bookmark” feature. While the app does automatically bookmark your last page read, you can’t “dogear” specific scenes or passages to which you’d like to return. And since the finger flick navigation is so slow, it’s hard to ever find that favorite part of the novel ever again.

In addition, the app can be slow and stuttery (page turns freezing up) and has been known to crash once or twice. Also (and I don’t know if this is just me) the bookshelf themed home menu, which is a great idea, has graphical bugs that stack the books the wrong direction and obscure titles. This is the first thing I saw when launching the app, and it really needs to be fixed immediately.

In the end, though, you’re getting 45 books for less than a buck. So while the app has its problems (which can be easily fixed), the content is spot on. This app is really a flawed must-have for literary fans.

You can buy Classics2Go Collection HERE.

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