Alongside books, I also enjoy reading magazines and have done ever since I can remember. I read all sorts: technology, travel, interiors and gardens and more.
As technology has advanced, so has my interaction with magazines. When I got my first Amazon Kindle in 2010 I was excited that I could load magazines onto it. The low resolution, monochrome screen was a limitation, of course, which meant that you weren’t getting the full glossy magazine experience, but the portability was a winner.
The next improvement was running the Kindle app on an iPad. The high resolution colour screen gave a much more ‘real’ experience, simulating the glossy pages very well. Subscriptions to individual magazines were cheaper than print versions - but sometimes not by much - and the choice was good. For a glossy home interiors magazine, you might pay £25 for a year’s subscription.
As more magazines are going 'digital-only', Readly is clearly the future. Until it all changes again.
But magazines are bulky and storage has always been a challenge. It’s a shame to simply throw them away each month, especially as there are always articles that are worth keeping. But unlike books, they’re not attractive on the shelf.
Then, out of nowhere, Amazon announced that they were going to stop offering magazines. Oh dear.
Then Lindsey discovered Readly. Think of it as Spotify for magazines and newspapers. It offers access to over 7,000 magazines, including back issues, and you can download and read as many as you like. For a flat subscription of £10 per month.
Needless to say my magazine reading habit has been reinvigorated, not least because I can now read not just my favourites but also titles which might be of marginal interest.
