If you’re an avid reader and you buy most of your books from Amazon.com, you’ll like Next Read from Square Wheel Software.
What Next Read aims to do is make it easy for you to keep track of books you might like to read, whether recommended to you by a friend or discovered while browsing a book store. The app also enables you to score the book using a point system that’s based on the credibility of the source that informed you of the book.
Let’s say you’re reading a newspaper and you come across a review of a book you think you might like to read. Pop open Next Read and enter the book’s title, the author’s name, or other relevant keywords. Next Read searches online and brings up a list of books.
Tap the book you’re interested in and you’ll arrive at a screen that depicts the book’s cover, title, author, publisher, price and several other significant details. You can either decide to add the book to your list by tapping the “Add to List” button or race off to Amazon to buy it by tapping the “Open Amazon Web page” button.
However, you’re not sure you want to buy this book just yet, but you think it merits further investigation, so you decide to add it to your book list. Here’s when you also give the book a score based on its source: a magazine is +1, Podcast is +2 and so on. You can customize the list of sources and number of points each is worth to you.
A few weeks later, you run into your well-read friend and you ask her whether she’s read the book. She recommends it and because you value her opinion more than that of anonymous book reviewer, you decide to increase the book’s score. Tap the “Increase Score” button on the Book Details page. Eventually, you’ll either get the book or scratch it off your list.
As I alluded to at the start, Next Read is a good app for someone who feeds on books as voraciously as piranha feed on rotten flesh and limits his or her book shopping to Amazon.com. The end.
