McSweeney's Goes APP!

I'm quite proud to say that my first APP review on this brand spanking new site is the (brand spanking new itself!) McSweeney's APP. Why? Because I've been reading, loving, and touting the excellence of this quirkily marvelous LitMag for years. Well, for the 9 or so years of its existence, at least.


What's so marvelous about McSweeney's you're wondering? Aren't all "literary magazines" pretty much the same: a handful of short stories, a smattering of poetry, and some snooty inside jokes for English Majors? Au Contraire! Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is an entity, a world unto itself. But a world for us, we tired-of-the-same-old, we lovers-of-the-funkily-done stuff. These are the people who put out The Believer magazine and Wholphin too. Every last article, story and film is stuff you wouldn't find anywhere else...primarily due to its out-there-ness. In a good way, that is.

McSweeney's (the "hard copy") comes in a different form every issue. Once it was a package of junk mail (literary junk mail), another was 16 tiny books with a story in each. And I could go on, but we're discussing the APP here. And until Dave Eggers (the man behind it all, he of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) and crew find a way to do that with an APP—and I'm certain they will, just a matter of time—you'll have to settle for their just-released APP full of plain old FUNky "dispatches," excellent  short stories, and general coolness as only old Timothy McSweeney can bring you. And bring to you daily. The APP is updated daily with new material.

At $5.99, your initial balk will quickly be replaced by a literary epiphany of epic proportions..."my God, there is great, funny and cool stuff out there! (and it's on my telephone!).