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I used to say I’d never read a book on the computer. Then again, I once said I’d never have a mobile phone. Or give up vinyl. I’d never have online friends. I’d never …ok. that’s for another time.
I, have, however, found a treasure trove of quality long-form magazine articles and an easy, eye-friendly way to read them.
First, you get a free Instapaper account. Think of it as Spotify for reading.
Instapaper lets you read any web page in the format pictured above or save it to your own online library to read later.
Isn’t that complicated? Nah, it’s easey-peasey! No tech skills required.
See the black arrow above? You get those bookmarklets at the Instapaper site. Drag ‘em to your favorites bar, and you’re done. Anywhere you surf after that, click one to read now or the other to read later.
You can get a little fancier if you like. You can adjust the display. You can send stuff to your library by email, which is handy. You can subscribe to your library by RSS feed. It’s eReader friendly, and it works on phones! (A great use is to Instapaper long things from your phone so you can read them at home/work)
But what about this treasure trove? Ah ha. How about the Greatest Magazine Articles Ever? Or hundreds of free, current articles from quality magazines.
I’m not sold on reading books on screen and I love scanning and folding my newspaper too much, but long magazine articles are perfect for onscreen reading. The above (proper full-length review here) is free and no tech skills needed, so give er a go mateys. (Mac or PC)
I can vouch that it works on a Mac too, as am a regular user – but for keeping work related articles, alas. Your really helpful post has opened my eyes to other possibilities. Thanks Tin.
You might also find Evernote useful then GHE. Same principle as the read it later part of Instapaper, but you can clip and send text, photo, music, video … anything you like. Send from a browser or via email. Automatically synch between phone, work, home
It’s horrendously popular but I’ve only just started using it. Also free.
Tinny: I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you, now all I need is a means of adding another 24 hours to each day; I guess I’ll thank you.
I just spent an interesting hour browsing through the entire list of articles and was pleasantly surprised by how many I remembered. There’s an article from the mid 90′s concerning air freight that’s stuck in my memory ever since and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I could remember the title or could find it, and there I was scrolling through the list and there it was! ” Barry Lopez, “On the Wings of Commerce.” Harper’s, October 1995.” And then there was the one from 1971 about blue boxes that I devoted a post to here some time back, it’s also on the list:
SECRETS OF THE LITTLE BLUE BOX
RON ROSENBAUM / ESQUIRE / OCT 1971
How phone phreakers, many of them blind, opened up Ma Bell to unlimited free international calling using a technical manual and a toy organ.
Both well worth a read, OK, I need to get started, you know where to find me if you need me.
I’ve been expecting curses from Blimpy for leading people away from the Spill!
Yeah, I’m an Evernote user too – and also the similar Zenbe. Don’t ask me why I use both! But they are good ways to keep all your gadgets in sync, if you’re a multiple gadget sort of person.