I have to be to do so, I settle for something on paper, a book, or a magazine that I’ve either read a dozen times or just can’t get into cos it’s so mind numbingly boring. Then I discovered magazine subscriptions on the iPad. This is really working out well for me, as an Englishman living abroad. After having mastered the art of fooling my Internet router via proxy into thinking I really AM in the UK or USA to make it easier to stream content, I now turn to satisfying my reading fix and keeping abreast with developments in my career field. An airport or train station copy of ‘Wired’ or ‘Future Music’ for example, can set you back easily over and above 10 euro’s an issue, and being a “Viz” fan I had to make
do with begging anyone I knew that was doing a trip to England to pick me up a copy- and that is harder than it sounds if the person isn’t English, trust me on this. All these compromises have been done away with now that I have discovered how to get the latest issue downloaded straight to my tablet computer, after reading through the complimentary copy I was hooked! The way you can click on some graphics and they come alive at you, the ability to zoom in and read from further away if needed so as not to strain your neck, and that whole flick, flick, flick, stab and stop gesturing feels as natural now as turning a page. But the most attractive option of course is the price: for the same as shelling out for 2 or 3 issues of magazine of choice in an airport newsagents, I’m subscribed up for the year. Alerts as soon as the new one is out, the ability to archive them online for retrieval at a later date should you need the memory space for something else, it’s utter bliss! While moving house I dumped a load of magazines I had into a bag and lifted it out to the car, “bloody hell, what useless heavy junk is THIS? “ Is what I thought while doing so. Now a book is a book, you’ll