23 Mobile Things: Thing 12 (Books, Books, & More Books)

For Thing 12, I tried Wattpad (Who names these apps?), which offers access to free books. The app itself was simple and straightforward to use. On the iPhone, it uses a finger swipe or tap to turn pages, it is customize-able, and it offers some of the considered-literary-classics that are not bound by copyright, along with some free titles. However, there are some features I don't quite understand; for example, I think the star icon indicates one can vote on the popularity of a book's section -- why? There are lots of opportunities for social networking features while reading a book, and that might be really desirable for some people who like reaching out and making reading a book into a more communal experience; however, I am a very private reader. I don't always like to share my thoughts on a work until I'm done, and sometimes not even then, so a feature like private notes might be nice in a reading app. Also, this app seems almost overly-customize-able, if that's a thing. For example, if you want to read the words of James Joyce's Dubliners as if they were written on a Packers fan's chest:

That somehow seems very wrong to my eyes. However, the customize-able aspect gives the reader the option to personalize, if not optimize, his or her reading experience.