I find the short story is a better format for the iPhone than novels, and that’s why Colossal Short Stories Collection ($0.99, iTunes link) is such a solid app to have on your iPhone. It includes over 2,200 short stories from some of the world’s greatest authors, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, etc. That’s pretty good for only $0.99 (its current sale price).
The app has all the features you’d expect from a good e-reader, including the all-important bookmarking and adjustable font size. There is a settings menu where you can turn on landscape mode or have the app immediately take you to where you left off upon launching.
The only downside is that these are all public domain works, and therefore dated. Lovers of modern fiction will have to look elsewhere.
I’ve been using it to read some short stories on the train, including one of my all-time favorites, “The Dead,” by James Joyce, and the app is polished and easy to use with no awkward hyphenation or strange justification of text. If you like classic short stories, it’s a solid app.
Colossal Short Stories is a 99-cent download from the iTunes App Store.