McSweeney's for iPhone

McSweeney's is a publishing house founded by Dave Eggers (who most recently wrote the screenplay for Where The Wild Things Are). It that publishes novels, a quarterly literary journal, and the McSweeney's Website. And now, there's a mobile app, too.

The McSweeney's app contains two main parts--the "Internet Tendency" section pulls content from McSweeney's Website (which offers daily pieces of short, humorous fiction), while "Small Chair" contains a larger, weekly feature pulled from the McSweeney's network. This content varies, but it can be anything from a longer piece of writing, to an in-depth interview to a video feature you can download to your iPhone or iPod touch

The app's interface--simple and classy--perfectly complements the work it contains. Articles are clearly presented; select one, and all the navigation fades away to allow you to focus on the writing. Tap the screen to make the navigation return.

McSweeney's features a noteworthy pricing model for an iPhone app. It costs $6 for a six-month subscription to the Small Chair service. After six months, you can renew via an in-app purchase for another $5. Technically the subscription just covers the Small Chair feature, so if you choose not to renew, you'll continue to have access to the Internet Tendency daily updates.

A $6 app that provides pieces of random fiction may not be for everyone, but more and more often, I found McSweeney's to be a rewarding escape from the up-to-the-second-breaking-news world that I normally inhabit.