Someone near me found that it is possible to use something called “Pressreader” (Ger., Eng.) via the local library. It promises full access to newspapers & magazines. This means that one has not to pay “Pressreader” for its service, but the library is the customer, and with a valid customer number and my PIN – with the library account – the library customer can use this newspaper service for free. It looks promising, because the interesting articles on the newspapers’ own websites are usually behind the pay-wall. At the website of Die ZEIT e.g. one can read this & that, but the accessible articles are usually dated, and repeated on a schedule, while the actual and interesting texts in the feuledong must be paid for. Or one buys the printed edition. It seems that the printed version and the online version also are not fully identical.
Anyway. What lured me in, is the promise to read some papers fully without being obligated to have an account with every single one. I should busily deal with this – ach, I am lazy today : Didn’t I have enough action yesterday, when I made it just in time into the library of the Franconian capital to create my account ? And I vacuumed my appartement. And I cooked soup ! Enough is enough I say – I do nothing today. At least one day per week should be free from “news”.
So let’s enjoy today’s Sunday Music, Guinnevere (Eng.) by Crosby, Stills & Nash from their debut album, aptly named after the musicians, released in 1969. May the week be bearable for all of us.
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63 mago 
Yay! I love the resources the library offers besides books in print. I am rather concerned that the physical books at my local library branch seem to be shrinking though. I do hope they can continue to offer both online and physical resources. Ours even have small rooms you can “checkout” hourly for study, tutoring, video calls, or small meetings, etc.
I’ve read Pressreader before – it let me read for free on my laptop.
I wish most days were news free!
Sx
Initially many librarians / libraries feared the digitalisation, or were at least very sceptical. Google’s scan-orgies did not help. Meanwhile libraries embraced digitalisation. And they play a new, modern, and simply more important role nowadays for “information” in a lot of ways.
I think there always will be books – cheaply made ones for instant use & not meant to stay around, well-made ones meant to survive coming ages.
Bury my heart at the information desk. Isn’t the original like “Bury my heart at the curve of the bar” ? Questions, Melanie, questions …
Is it good, this pressreader thing ? I ‘ave no laptop MsScarlet …
It’s okay. Sometimes Google Search turns up a pay for view article that sounds interesting, so I type the exact title of the article into the Google search box and it usually gives me the article on Pressreader in the results. Useful.
Sx
Guinnevere is a beautiful song but I won’t miss that arrogant sod Crosby.
Thank you MsScarlet. I did not tinker with my account etc. yet, maybe I’ll do it this weekend. Later. Right now I feel exhausted, my head hurts, I wheeze, all I want is to hide under the duvet …
De mortuis nil, nisi bene, as the ancients said. He may have been a disagreeable man, but he made wonderful music. And in the end the music lasts, stays, and counts, dear Mistress. The work of art, at one point, becomes autonomous (auto – nomos), it follows its own “law”, it is what remains. And “works”, wants to be discovered, always anew. It is always difficult to separate man from work. I think, after giving this a lot of consideration, that it is possible, and even necessary, to separate the artist from his / her /its exuded art. I have no idea where this thought leads to, but facing or hearing great paintings or music, I am touched. And this first touch can not be spoiled if I learn later that the artist did nasty things, or harboured ideological crap. Or simply was an idiot.
Interestingly this does not work with Wagner – as much as one or two “Leitmotive” grabbed me, the remaining 99 % of his work are simply shit, cheapest tingle-tangle, all Gablonz de Luxe. (Gablonz is the name of town in Bohemia, where cheap bijou was produced, “Modeschmuck” – all “as if”, all “fake”. It has its own fascination.)
I’ve got an account with my library and it opens up a fantastic array of resources. My problem is that I can’t read anything online longer than a blog entry. It’s not only a physical pleasure to have a book in one’s hand, it makes me concentrate for far longer than I can do on a screen. I can read hundreds of pages on paper.
Yes, it must be a generational thing I guess – we simply grew up with books Loob, while the younger generation grew up with screens. Books are much more practical – you can throw them several times, while the stupid e-reader …