Fans of Haruki Murakami can plan their year while reading snippets of his work
Replacing Apple's preloaded apps on your iPhone with those made by other companies is something of a trend right now, whether it's Google Maps for finding your way, Sparrow for email or Chrome for web browsing.
Now Japanese author Haruki Murakami has an app that could ??for some fans at least ??consign Apple's default Calendar app to the junk folder. Meet publisher Random House's new Murakami Diary app, which has been released for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The app isn't an attempt to present Murakami's fiction, although it does include some exclusive short stories. Nor is it pure marketing content, although its release has been timed to appear alongside the paperback release of Murakami's last novel 1Q84 and the repackaging of his backlist.
Instead, Random House and its developer partner Aimer Media are part of a welcome trend for promotional apps that actually fulfil a useful function.
In this case, it's a calendar, which pulls in entries from Apple's iCal system, while peppering the year with quotes from Murakami's backlist of novels and short stories ??all sharable via Facebook, Twitter and email.
As a fan of his work, I was initially wary, but ended up impressed. The design feels right, sitting neatly alongside the cover artwork of his books here in the West. The app's design doesn't jar with your expectations, but also the books lend themselves very well to the quotations format.
From a publishing point of view, too, Murakami Diary integrates Apple's iBookstore nicely, popping it up within the app to browse and buy the ebook versions, which then download in the background.
The app costs ?1.99, which may mean its appeal stays restricted to keen fans rather than more-casual readers. The exclusive short stories, even if they are very short, make the app good value for the former, given that it also functions as a pretty decent calendar.
The geek in me (both literary and technological) would love to see what Random House might do with a fully-fledged interactive version of one of Murakami's novels, more around contextual notes and perhaps the musical references than anything flippant like flinging cartoon cats around the screen.
Perhaps that's something for the next novel. In the meantime, Murakami Diary is an interesting release ??although North American fans should be aware that it's not available in the US or Canada, presumably for rights reasons.
As publishers continue to figure out how they can use apps to market authors and novels in an interesting way, Murakami Diary is certainly worth its slot on the App Store, and on the devices of Haruki's fans around the world.
This article was amended on 10 January 2013 to reflect the fact that the "new" book is the paperback edition of 1Q84, which has been available for some time as a hardback.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/appsblog/2013/jan/10/harukimurakami-apps
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