bookish devices

One of my favorite parts of BEA is finding out about what’s new in the bookish world. One of my top finds of this year was Litsy, a new app that looks like it has the potential to be my new favorite social media experience.

Litsy (lit’sē), n. 1. A community of readers; 2. an iOS app; 3. a place where books make friends

Brought to you by the team behind Out of Print, and self-described (on their website) as “a place to share and discover your favorite books with your favorite people” Litsy is refreshingly slimmed down in terms of what it lets and asks you to do. A photo heavy, pared down, book review app that allows me to share my love of books and bookporn without feeling the pressure of not bookstagramming well enough–yes please!

Using the app is quite simple. First choose one of three options, review a book, share a blurb, or quote a book. Then simply add a picture and any desired text (there’s a limit of 300 words so everything is short and sweet).  If you’re reviewing a book you’ll also have the option to give it a rating of sorts, but don’t worry that is streamlined too. Your options are Like, So-So, Pan, and Bail and that’s it. No agonizing over whether a book gets 4 or 4 1/2 stars or if a 3 star review is going to freak out an author’s fan army, just a quick rating. Add a spoiler warning if needed and you’re good to go. Personally, I LOVE this system!

Photos are highly suggested on Litsy and face it, they just make your feed look so much nicer but the best part is that (so far) the pictures look so–well–real. They’re mostly unposed or semi posed shots taken as someone is reading or going through their library. Yes, I’ve tried to make some of mine look “pretty” and there are a handful of editing tools built into the app, but the pressure for the “perfect” book photo just isn’t there. This makes me happy.

Litsy is an elegantly limited social media environment that is truly tailored to booklovers. There’s no PM’s or DM’s,  no message boards, polls, lists, or anything else to clutter the app. Just talk about books and find other friends to do the same. Your Litsy presence is measured as “litfluence,” a system that reminds me of gaming stats and is reflective of the number of books and pages read, likes, comments, and book adds. Again, simple but fun. And not a popularity contest like some other social media sites may feel like. Read a lot, review a lot, increase your litfluence. Easy peasy.

Listy is very much a new and growing social media community. Yes, it has it’s quirks and is platform limited at this time (iOS only) but the developers appear to be very committed to making it a great social media haven for book lovers. I, for one, hope they succeed.

You can follow the Bookish Ladies on Litsy at
JessKH
Jennifer_BookishDevices
or follow all of us at BookishDevices
(we love to see what our BD family is reading so if you follow the blog Litsy,
we’ll follow you back!)

Have you joined Litsy? If you have, what do you think?