E-reader for Rail Magazines

[Masbroughlad]

I want to drag myself into the 21st century. I've got thousands of paper magazines and I really need to change.

I have annual subscription to two titles.

Does anybody just have e-magazines? What reader do you have?
How does it work? Do they get sent to you? (Sorry, I really haven't a clue!)

I'm not a total luddite. Got a decent Samsung phone, but would probably preferable bigger screen for reading text and pictures.

Help and suggestions welcome, please.

 

[GusB]

I want to drag myself into the 21st century. I've got thousands of paper magazines and I really need to change.

I have annual subscription to two titles.

Does anybody just have e-magazines? What reader do you have?
How does it work? Do they get sent to you? (Sorry, I really haven't a clue!)

I'm not a total luddite. Got a decent Samsung phone, but would probably preferable bigger screen for reading text and pictures.

Help and suggestions welcome, please.

I used to subscribe to Readly and used the app on my tablet. It'll work on a smartphone too, but it's not an ideal screen size.

You should be able to get a month or two free if you want to try it out.

Readly | All magazines - one magazine app subscription

Readly | All your favourite magazines with only one subscription for a fixed price of £12.99 a month. Try the unlimited magazine app for Free!

gb.readly.com

 

[hexagon789]

I want to drag myself into the 21st century. I've got thousands of paper magazines and I really need to change.

I have annual subscription to two titles.

Does anybody just have e-magazines? What reader do you have?
How does it work? Do they get sent to you? (Sorry, I really haven't a clue!)

I'm not a total luddite. Got a decent Samsung phone, but would probably preferable bigger screen for reading text and pictures.

Help and suggestions welcome, please.

I used to subscribe to Readly and used the app on my tablet. It'll work on a smartphone too, but it's not an ideal screen size.

You should be able to get a month or two free if you want to try it out.

Readly | All magazines - one magazine app subscription

Readly | All your favourite magazines with only one subscription for a fixed price of £12.99 a month. Try the unlimited magazine app for Free!

gb.readly.com

Alternatively, you could check whether your local library utilises "Libby" which gives free access to about 7 or 8 railway titles through an app.

Glasgow Libraries, where I am, offer this service through one's library card membership.

 

[m0ffy]

I use an iPad with the kindle app. I also have a kindle scribe, which is probably the worst device I’ve bought - it’s as bulky and expensive as the iPad, but has far fewer features and, crucially, renders magazines very poorly.

 

[tbtc]

We use Readily too, it seems very user friendly

There are a few rail/train themed magazines on there (RAIL, Rail Express, Railways Illustrated, The Railway Magazine, Narrow Gauge Works, Traction etc plus also titles like Railway Modeler, Model Rail, British Railway Modeling)

On top of this you've got national newspapers (Guardian, Express, Mirror, Metro, i, Independent), a variety of local and regional newspapers (inc some overseas) with magazines from the highbrow of New Scientist/ Chemistry Today to the likes of the Beano/ Viz

Any new publications (that I've "favourited") are downloaded to my device automatically so I don't have to faff about with individual downloads manually

It's nice to read these publications (zooming in to suit) without the intrusive adverts you get trying to read most newspaper websites nowadays, it allows me to dip into read various things that I'd never risk spending best part of a fiver on something I might only want to read the article highlighted on the cover of (as well as some specialist stuff like say, a food in the months before Christmas but a fitness magazine in January, rather than subscribing to a year's worth of one about a subject that might not interest me year-round)

I can't fault Readily - my only real uncertainty is that I never know whether there's are other things on there that I've just not searched for yet. In a newsagent, you'd see similar magazines grouped together on the shelves but the app doesn't often recommend similar titles to you so you can't be sure what else there is)

 

[ChrisC]

Alternatively, you could check whether your local library utilises "Libby" which gives free access to about 7 or 8 railway titles through an app.

Glasgow Libraries, where I am, offer this service through one's library card membership.

I can also recommend ”Libby” which may be freely available through being a member of your local library service via your library card. Nottinghamshire libraries offer this service for magazines through the Libby app and newspapers through the Press Reader app. Hopefully this facility will not be withdrawn now that services are likely to face cuts by the new Reform led county council.

 

[D365]

I also have a kindle scribe, which is probably the worst device I’ve bought - it’s as bulky and expensive as the iPad, but has far fewer features and, crucially, renders magazines very poorly.

That’s disappointing to read. I was hoping that a Scribe might serve as an e-reader and digital notepad. In particular for drawing on PDFs.

 

[m0ffy]

That’s disappointing to read. I was hoping that a Scribe might serve as an e-reader and digital notepad. In particular for drawing on PDFs.

The notepad functionality is good, and the screen feels very natural to write on, but I’ve found I’d rather use an iPad and pencil (with softer pencil tips) as it’s a bit less faffy. It’s a device with a lot of potential, but it’s been nobbled by Amazon for reasons that escape me.

 

[Buzby]

In addition to Libby, I can recommend PressReader. This operates by subscription - just like Readily, but the monthly fee provides access to everything. As noted by @hexagon789 I also have a free subscription through my local library, and haven’t purchased a paper or magazine in the last 3 years - it saves me a fortune, AND you get access to all the back issues too. I bought an iPad Pro with the money saved and no longer go near defunct WH Smith’s anymore.

 

[ac6000cw]

I switched entirely to electronic magazines early in the Covid period (after 50 years of buying paper magazines at newsagents), currently mostly obtained via individual magazine subs through Pocketmags and Zinio - read via their apps on a large tablet. Much cheaper and I can read them on several different devices.

Main thing I've found is that it's much nicer/easier to read them on large tablet (I started out using an 8 inch one, then moved to a relatively cheap 12 inch one). Not having to keep zooming in and scrolling around makes it a much pleasanter reading experience.