I'd like to be in on the obscure jokes about Sri Lanka

October 11, 2011 11:30 AM

I need to start following international news for my job. I also just bought a Nook. I'm betting the latter can help with the former...

I work for a nonprofit that does a lot of work in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America. Basically, almost any country which has recently experienced or is currently experiencing unrest/upheaval is fair game. It would be useful for my job if I had at least a general working knowledge of news/politics/cultural contexts in such places. (Which is a pretty tall order, as I'm essentially starting from zero- I haven't followed the news with any care in years.)

The most informed I've ever felt re: world news was when I had a subscription to the Economist a few years ago, but 1. I no longer agree with some of its basic political assumptions (ie neoliberalism) and 2. it's expensive.

So, that's the problem. A solution may have presented itself in the form of this Nook, which I impulsively bought from a friend a couple days ago. I've never had an e-reader before, so I don't even really know what sorts of things can be put on it, but I assume that you can subscribe to magazines and newspapers, and possibly blogs, with it?

Of course, even if you can put magazines and blogs on it, I still have no idea WHAT magazines and blogs I should be reading!

In short: I have an hour-long commute twice a day, a need for broad international news coverage, and a Nook. Tell me what to put on it!

posted by showbiz_liz to technology (6 answers total)

MetaFilter is a good start. No, seriously.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 11:35 AM on October 11, 2011

Checkout Calibre ebook management software. It has many built-in scripts that will do scheduled downloads of various news sites (basically all the big names) and blogs, and does an excellent job of managing content on the Nook (and presumably other e-readers, though the Nook is what I own).

As for specifics re international news, like you I don't necessarily agree with The Economist philosophically, but as far as 'pure' news goes, it's still my favorite. I recently saw a Groupon deal that was roughly 60% of the regular subscription price for it as well.
posted by ndfine at 11:41 AM on October 11, 2011

but 1. I no longer agree with some of its basic political assumptions (ie neoliberalism)

All the more reason to read it actually.

If you can read e-mail on the nook, you could subsribe to the Der Speigel [English] newsletter. Lots of coverage of the EU debt crisis. They also have an RSS feed.
posted by Jahaza at 12:54 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

three years of German and I misspell "Spiegel". Ouch.
posted by Jahaza at 1:22 PM on October 11, 2011

The top three papers I would recommend for good international reporting are The Economist, Financial Times and Al-Jazeera.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:27 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't know anything about Nooks, but as far as international news I think it's hard to beat Google News. You can personalize the site so that particular subjects come up more often, and you can create all sorts of other settings that will make it the ideal place for you to find what you're looking for. Another plus is that Google News includes articles from blogs and smaller news websites that you might otherwise never hear of... and I'm guessing that those are the places most likely to keep in the know when it comes to obscure jokes about Sri Lanka.
posted by seriousmoonlight at 1:20 PM on October 12, 2011