Shelf
Shelf is a new note-taking app that allows you to save your thoughts about books right on your phone.
It’s simple to use. Search for the book you’re reading, save it to a queue (books are listed by title, with their cover images) and type notes as you’re reading. Once you’re done reading, mark the book as complete, and it moves to a separate queue.
Some people might not want to get on board with using their phone to jot notes. Reading, gloriously, is a low-tech pleasure. After a day of staring at the basilisk glow of a computer, they like the lightless ease of a printed page, a salve for strained eyes.
Shelf’s first problem is that books cannot be arranged alphabetically in their queues or by subject, such as science, history or philosophy.
The second problem: Seeing a striking line while reading, you have to pull out your phone and type your thoughts. This can distract from the flow of reading. Maybe taking a picture is a better solution, especially for more maundering passages that require much typing? Nope. Shelf does not access the phone’s camera.
Shelf is helpful in building a wish list of books to scout for at used bookstores To do that, you have to use either your current or completed lists; there’s no way to add another. But not all books are in Shelf’s database, which doesn’t seem to favor out-of-print titles.
Shelf’s simplicity seems less of a virtue than a hindrance. Are you going to be happy with typing out the occasional striking line from a book, as long as it’s in Shelf’s database? Then it’s a good choice for you. But with a few tweaks, the app could be a welcome friend for book shoppers.
Shelf is free for iOS.
— Timothy R. Smith, The Washington Post
