The Times Literary Supplement Reviews

by Harrymacz

Worst digital subscription app I have had the sad occasion to pay for using. Can’t remember my subscription information and provides no means to sign in to one’s account. Open the account tab and you are informed you are not authorized to view YOUR account information. All past issues locked for access by digital subscribers only, though you are and for several years have been a suffering digital subscriber. Sometimes TheTimesLiterarySupplement remembers who you are and lets you in. Other times it does not and since it doesn’t allow you to sign in (how elementary a convenience!) you must again send an email to find out how to get in—when you want to read an issue now, not three days hence. This has been going on for 3 years and no web site improvements in that time. Tossing TheTimesLiterarySupplement and keeping the print edition.

by Cujo5000

For about a year haven’t been able to view TLS but was being charged.

About a year ago, I canceled subscription somehow, lost ability to view, but I kept getting charged. I messaged TLS who said they didn’t see me as a subscriber but iTunes was probably charging me. I asked TLS to allow me to view again since I couldn’t stop the subscription, but they couldn’t figure out the technical issue and told me to talk to iTunes. I just stumbled upon how to cancel the subscription on iTunes, canceled it, and immediately TheTimesLiterarySupplement allowed me to view again for the 2 remaining days on last paid week.

So a terrible experience.

by Levo Dextro

I can no longer access my subscription. I get an "authorisation failed" message. This has been going on for 2 weeks.

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A year or two has passed since I wrote the above ... I decided to try the subscription again. It worked well for a few weeks. Then today, it crashes everytime I try to read an article.

Eventually the TLS will catch up with the technology of the 1990s and provide an adequate app for reading. But they will have spent YEARS damaging their reputation and readership by tolerating their (fantastic!) content to be distributed through such flawed, thoroughly crappy apps.

TLS was a giant of the print world. It is awful that such a wonderful newspaper couldn’t find a successful way to digitize after decades of trying. They were titans, and I have always loved the writing. But, they are complete digital idiots.

by Smothert

I use TheTimesLiterarySupplement when I travel, and like to download issues before I go. TheTimesLiterarySupplement frequently denies access, won’t let my password app supply the user/password, doesn’t like the password, etc. I understand the need to protect intellectual property. But if you can’t make access closer to the experience of picking up the paper and beginning to read, there’s no point in a digital subscription, and it’ll be easier just to throw a few issues in the checked luggage.

by Nebba2

While I so far I haven’t had the login issues that others have reported, I have substantial complaints:
1. I prefer to select what to read based on the topic and author of the books being reviewed, but that information is deeply buried. Thematic heads like “SCIENCE” are often too broad to help.
2. The information that is prominent in the table of contents includes reviewers’ names that I only sometimes recognize, and review titles, selected for cleverness rather than utility.
3. In print, I read a bit of the review, then look at who the reviewer is, and return to the review. In TheTimesLiterarySupplement , this is a cumbersome process.
4. On my iPad, TheTimesLiterarySupplement will orient to landscape from either side, but portrait only one way, and not the way that would be most useful.

by Qrh1

I subscribed to the TLS, yet am continually asked to buy the issue. There is no clear sign in option. Once it is up and running, navigation is poor - download each separate issue, see what’s inside. It’s print by other means, an archive, not respecting the possibilities of online.
Great content, once you get to it.

by Ale Fed

TheTimesLiterarySupplement itself is wonderful. I just loaded it a week or so ago and love it. But I have to log in again every time. Why won't it stay? The iPhone version stays. Also, after their programmers figure out how to fix that, they might consider including the crossword. I'm keeping the paper subscription solely in order to get the puzzle.

by Bill O'Basket

To view the title of the work being reviewed requires an extra click, which opens a overlay masking the review. It is a remarkably stupid interface for a periodical/app that is devoted to book reviews. I’m not crazy about the revision to the print versions layout, but it is more useful than this bad design.

Why is an icon of a picture frame part of the UX? What did the designers think that means to a reader? The logic of the most basic aspects of TheTimesLiterarySupplement ’s design suggest that no one involved had ever read an issue of TLS, which is probably the case.

You do need to login every couple of weeks, which is annoying. Also, the login is unconventional, requiring an account number, but not the account password. I suspect this underlies many of the complaints in the other reviews.

The LRB app is faultless in comparison, although it is pretty basic. TLS should study the competition, as it is.

I cannot speak more highly of the archive access, through Gale Research, but this is a subscription benefit unrelated to this awkward app.

by Paul Bove

Cannot use TheTimesLiterarySupplement from day to day without refilling subscription information each and every time. Search for info, copy and paste, hit ok, read—for a bit—repeat endlessly.

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Update: does anyone understand why they see the need constantly to login as a desirable feature? What does it to for them?

In my best moment, I realize I should cancel and read via library subscriptions online.

by RFGj

On new monthly plan and can't discern how to log in. Why can't my account number be retained like Every Other subscription app I use?

by Seawisey

The Times Literary Supplement offers me a quality and style of commentary I otherwise cannot find anywhere else. Treat yourself to a delicious dessert of ideas that have consequences. Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

by Filderman

The range of topics is staggering, the depth of knowledge is almost always profound, and the attempt to cover the best and the brightest (often not the most well-known) is constantly impressive. In our Era of World Mediocrity, the historic TLS continues to be a bright beacon of intellectual hope.

by Milomarch

Less ideal than print, on line still serves a useful purpose. On my iPad thus far everything works well and the formatting of articles is excellent.

by 0ledzepp

TLS magazine is superb, but the TLS app is awful. I am not the first to complain it; many subscribers have complained about it.

However, TLS management refuses to acknowledge it, and has no interest in fixing it.

This is very surprising and consumer unfriendly. The management needs to wake up.

by SRosenman

Need TLS more than ever as a place of refuge

Have been subscribing since 1988 and ever since then my cocktail party chatter has glittered as strangers flock around me to listen to me hold forth as I regurgitate all that I have read that week

by Jo@chelsea

Download fails more often than not. Consumer staff takes two weeks or longer to reply to complaints. Deleting and re downloading of TheTimesLiterarySupplement is time consuming and often fails to solve problem. TLS states not their problem.

by Sathooni

TheTimesLiterarySupplement worked for a bit. Then it refused to allow me any access, and wants to charge me 2.99 to look at each issue that I already paid for. I talked with customer service who assure me they can log in as me with no problem. Gee, I wish I could be so lucky.

by Hattiehein

Easy to navigate & use app, with the best weekly book reviews & essays in the English-speaking world. You can buy individual issues for cheap, or use your TLS subscription to access them. The text font itself is clear and readable. A+.

by Bagradian

A longtime subscriber to the hard copy edition, I am still loyal to the paper version but find TheTimesLiterarySupplement a sensible and practical alternative when I’m on travel. Its main virtues are simplicity, clarity, and - frankly - a direct reflection of the printed version’s structure. Less is more. My only recommendation is to keep the articles’ titles identical to the hard copy edition.

by Aileverte

For some time now, and even without TheTimesLiterarySupplement getting any updates, it seems, I keep losing the issues I had downloaded. It’s a real pain to have to redownload things all the time, never mind that you still get logged out at intervals. Please at least go back to a version that kept the downloads. I love the journal and often like to revisit issues, and seldom get through the whole one within a week.

by NoWayJose34

It wont let you share articles. And why those fusty little windows you have to click on to know what book is being reviewed?

App now updated but little improved. You still cannot share articles and you still have to tap on a separate window to see what book is being reviewed. For the short reviews you have to scroll first to the bottom to find out what book is being reviewed. It is as though the TLS hired a layout autist to do TheTimesLiterarySupplement .