There’s a new New Yorker waiting for me …

Most of the email I receive outside of work goes unopened. But not this one:

I immediately click through to check out the newest edition of The New Yorker via Zinio, a service Seattle Public Library offers for free with a Library card. I open my iPad’s Zinio app, refresh my “library” — and there it is.

You can choose to read magazine page style, like this, or straight text. (Click to see larger.)

I’m a little late to the Zinio game, as I was convinced I didn’t want to read a magazine on a screen. Surprisingly, I’m finding that I read more of each issue (of other magazines as well) on my iPad than I did when I subscribed to paper editions. And since I download it to read offline — and since I commute with my iPad — it’s always available on my transit commute and lunch breaks.

You can read The New Yorker magazine style (where you can easily enlarge or reduce type and images) or text style. I choose magazine style because I like flipping through the pages, just like I would with a print edition. But sometimes, especially later at night, I switch to the text version and invert the colors to be a little easier on my eyes.

I inverted the colors on the straight text version; sometimes this is an easier way to read in certain light conditions.
(Click to see image.)

There are more than 150 magazines you can access for free via SPL’s Zinio service. Use the direct Zinio link, or, from our catalog, choose “downloads” and then choose “Zinio Magazines.” It will take you about two minutes to set it up the first time. Then, if you choose,  you can be notified when new issues of favorite magazines are available. Getting those new issues will take about 10 seconds.

— posted by Linda J.