# Gutenberg Book Reader — user reviews > 23 indexed App Store user reviews of Gutenberg Book Reader by himalaya-soft, rated 3.00/5 from 19 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gutenberg-book-reader/id663537858/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gutenberg-book-reader/id663537858.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 5 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 6 ## Newest reviews (3 of 23) ### 3/5 — Boring UI *2020-07-15* The UI is so boring. ### 4/5 — Guetenberg - A world of books!!!! *2017-08-22* This is a great app that needs a OSX Mac companion app (only thing really missing) that can synced thru iTunes or iCloud. I have read so many good old detective mystery books I think I ran out!!! I am into fiction and drama now, so we will see what surprises await! ### 2/5 — Sorta works *2015-02-07* You can read with this, sometimes without annoyance. Issues: (1) If you don't open the app for a while (overnight), the app forgets the book you were reading and page you were on unless you manually save it. (2) Way too easy to swipe to new chapter when swiping to new page. (3) Often refuses to advance to next page when images are on current page. Generally does not handle images well. (4) When you download a book from Bookshelves, app takes you back to home page and you have to climb back through the menu choices to load another book. (5) Too easy to trigger icons, covering up text. None of these should be hard to fix. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not any good *2024-04-13* I was looking for app that I can load my books to and this isn’t it tbh I should have researched it bit ### 1/5 — Very strange. *2024-01-07* I paid Japanese ¥400 for the pro version. Earlier I had downloaded this app’s free version. They acted in exactly the same way when I searched for Anne of Green Gables; they said “ Downloading/formatting the book for your iPhone… I will dismiss myself when I’m done.” I did the same search for the second time on the pro version. I okayed the same message for the third time and tried downloading the book from the same table listing all the versions of the book, which I had seen all along. The link led me to Google browser. I think this is a total scam. ### 1/5 — Pretty good - annoying audio *2021-11-01* The app works well, its a nice interface, typeface is clear. The audio turns itself on, when I have not opened the app and is annoying. I have tried to shut it down, but can only doing so by turning off my ipad. **Developer response:** Hi Carstairs, Thank you very much for sharing with us your experience. By design, this app allows users to listen to audiobooks when the app is running in the background. To turn off audio, you can either (1) stop/pause audio from audiobook interface, or (2) close the app (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201330). However, if these methods do not work for your device, could you please kindly send us the steps to duplicate the problem? We will try our best to fix it asap. Please do feel most welcome to contact us via email (tap ? on the HOME screen of this app). Thank you again. Your App Developer. ### 1/5 — ??? *2018-09-29* I paid but the ad banner is still there. What happened? **Developer response:** Hi, el915 Thank you for your feedback. The only way this could happen is that the option to show ads has been 'accidentally' switched on. By default it should be off. To turn off ads display, please tap the 'gear icon' on this app's home screen to show 'setting' and then switch off the option called "Display Ads". Thank you again for giving us your feedback. Himalaya-Soft Support ### 1/5 — Nothing to see here *2018-02-12* This is nothing more than you can find on any one of a dozen free “classic” book apps. I’m reading some Hemingway on the free Gutenberg website, but the PDF formatting can be a bit challenging. So I figured I would find the same here in a more reader friendly format. Wrong. Just the same old Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austen that litter the free readers that are rampant in the App Store. Save yourself three bucks and run from this thing as fast as you can. **Developer response:** Hi, Rdwing64 There is a free version of this app, identical in functionality to the paid version. Most people would use this free version before they feel the need to pay a $2.99. Please do contact Apple's App Store for a refund if you are not satisfied with your purchase. It is our desire to make all our customers appreciate the value of our product and service. Thank you for sharing with us your experience and wish you many happy readings of Gutenberg books. Himalaya-Soft Support ### 1/5 — Don't waste your money *2017-01-10* Buggy and clunky. Books fail to load. ### 1/5 — Dang *2014-04-22* It does work, but try to understand how. Lousy job, to download a book means immediately start reading it, forget to go back to the page from which you downloaded, it won't happen soon. ### 2/5 — Kinda works? *2026-01-16* Annoying and counter intuative but it IS possible to read and listen to some books. Is it worth’s the hassles? That is the question. ### 2/5 — Problematic *2017-07-19* Insensitive to touch, difficult to maneuver, highlighted paragraph does not match up with the text being spoken, if the iPad is moved, the night lighting is undone and changed back to normal, author speaks clearly but with little affect and does not intone the dialogue as though people are speaking (also speeding up the audio does not do anything-maybe that's just for tts?) It's very clumsy. I regret buying the app. ### 2/5 — waste. *2015-04-16* waste of a buck. pointless, poorly programmed, poorly designed. just go download what you need from the Project Gutenberg site and open it in a real e-reader. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Underrated App! *2022-05-10* So amazing being able to access so many amazing books 😁 love it! Edit: unfortunately paid twice to remove ads and they're still there 😠 paid for full version because loved the product, and paid for remove ads separately after since I thought it might be extra, neither worked; so frustrating ### 5/5 — A delight *2019-12-14* And now with dark mode. ### 5/5 — The paid version is better and cheaper *2017-09-19* Used both the free and the paid versions. For $2.99 you are free from the pop-up. However, if you are unwilling to part with your $2.99, you can continue to use the free version without limit, that was what I did in the past until I finally decided that I deserve to enjoying my reading in peace. ### 5/5 — Great App *2017-06-24* This app is great. Gets better all the time. Really a good buy, and so many free classics to choose from. ### 5/5 — Guttenburg Press *2017-05-26* The Best ### 5/5 — Most elegantly designed book reader! *2016-11-05* Have been using this app for many years now. Without any doubt this is the most elegantly designed book reader. It gives me the pleasure of holding a real book in hands and flipping the pages with my fingers. I truly appreciate that the developer keeps updating this app, which always amazes me how they could recoup the cost of such a huge undertaking. Thank you, developer. ### 5/5 — Simply amazing *2016-05-26* This little app is so easy to use. I typed in the search box 'beagle' I immediately found Darwin's beagle. It also recommended a list of audio books. I downloaded the text version. Then much to my surprise, I could listen to the text using a TTS voice, which I actually like. Now I am mixing reading and listening depending on my mood of the time. Simply amazing! ### 5/5 — best for reading gutenberg *2016-05-21* Best for reading or listening to Gutenberg books. For $1.99 I get to use it for the last two years and I am sure many more years to come. Thank you developer for releasing so many new versions. ### 5/5 — Fantastic! *2013-08-24* It is so much easier to use Gutenberg now! Thank you developers for making this useful app! ### 4/5 — TTS *2017-12-28* I use TTS and it works pretty good. The voices actually have some inflection in them so they sound pretty good. Every once in awhile it gets stuck and I get a spoken error message that I think says something like “evaluate the owner of string”. I just turn it off and restart it and go back to page. **Developer response:** Hi, Nansdogo Thank you for using the TTS feature in our app. It is our belief that TTS is improving rapidly in the last few years and it will soon be able to do most of the readings where the display of human emotion is not critical or needed and where human-read books are not available. One additional advantage of TTS is that the voice is always very clear and steady and no-objectionably human noises are present. Wish you many hours of happy reading and listening in Gutenberg App. Himalaya_soft Support --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-23.*