Help with Ginquill

Choose a book on the Shelf and tap Start this book. Each entry opens on its own date and hour. The Post tab shows what has arrived and when the next entry comes. Read an entry to the end or tap Fold the letter to mark it read.

On the historic calendar an entry dated 14 May opens on 14 May, at its hour, in your time zone — if the book's season is already under way, the earlier entries are waiting for you. Start today opens the first entry immediately and keeps every later interval of the book to the minute.

No — that is the point. Sealed entries show only their date and a countdown. Everything that has arrived stays readable in the book's Archive.

Yes: open the book and use Hold the post for a day, three days, a week or until you resume. Every later entry moves back by the length of the pause; no silence gets shorter. On the historic calendar you can later choose Catch up with history.

Every entry has a place, and Nellie Bly's journey has a route with dates. The app works out where the narrator is at your current point in the story and points to it from your approximate location or from a city you choose. Only the road already travelled is drawn on the map.

No account, nothing to buy. All thirty books are inside the app and everything works offline; only the map tiles need a connection.

In the app: Settings → Notifications. Or in iOS Settings → Notifications → Ginquill. Quiet hours and the choice to show text in notifications are in the app's Settings.

The books are original texts written between 1500 and 1916. A small number of passages (graphic cruelty, period slurs) were omitted; each omission is marked, and the totals are listed under Settings → Sources & licences.

Check that notifications are allowed for Ginquill in iOS Settings and that Focus is not silencing them. Entries arriving during your quiet hours are announced together when the quiet hours end. Opening the app always shows everything that has arrived.

Your reading is stored only on the device. Deleting the app deletes it; reinstalling starts fresh. Restoring an iPhone backup made before deletion brings it back.

The map tiles need an internet connection. The compass itself, distances and the narrator's place work offline.

Some devices have no compass, or it needs calibrating: move the phone in a figure-eight. Without a compass the needle shows the bearing from north.