This is a wrapper around the Web site of the London Review of Books (LRB).
I was frustrated by the differences in features between the iPad app and the website (e.g., on the Web you can read every article from the very first edition in 1979, and this actually makes for very interesting reading). The app doesn't go back that far, it doesn't track what you have already read, it doesn't include the blog, etc. Thus, I found myself constantly switching between the two.
To fix that, I've designed this app.
This app does not provide free access to the LRB—you still need a subscription. It is also currently not intended for off-line use (that's planned for the future). Finally, it is in no way endorsed by the LRB itself! It's strictly meant as a customized personal interface to the LRB that automates my preferences.
Tabs at the top, left to right (Web is the default on launch):
- Web — in-app web view starting at lrb.co.uk. The app opens here so the first thing you see is fresh content. Cookies persist inasmuch as you can stay signed in to the LRB site.
- Issues — per-year archive from 1979 onward; shows remaining-to-read counts per issue and per year. Tap an issue to read it (opens within the Issues tab). Swipe a row to archive a whole issue at once.
- Blog — in-app web view of the LRB blog.
- Bookmarks — pages you have saved via the bookmark toolbar button. Tap a bookmark to reopen it within the Bookmarks tab.
Each tab manages its own navigation: opening an issue from Issues stays in Issues, opening a bookmark from Bookmarks stays in Bookmarks, etc. The back chevron walks the current page's history, and at the bottom of history pops back to the list.
The reader toolbar offers reload, archive (works on the current article, or on the whole issue when you are on its table of contents), bookmark, and share.
Read tracking marks an article (or blog post) as read after 5 seconds on the page, or immediately if you tap the archive button. Read links are dimmed and struck through wherever they appear on LRB pages.
Archiving a whole issue displays every article in the issue as read, without touching individual read marks. The archive action lives in two places: a swipe action on each row in the Issues tab, and the toolbar archive button while on an issue's table of contents in Browse. Unarchiving from the toolbar offers two variants — one that keeps any per-article reads you had made, and a destructive one that clears every read mark for the issue.
- Xcode 17+ on macOS, or Swift Playgrounds 4+ on iPad, to build
- iPadOS 17+ to run
- An LRB subscription — you sign in to lrb.co.uk on the Web per normal (the app does not handle sign-in nor record your credentials)
- iCloud Backup is enabled. All state lives in a local SQLite database; iOS auto-includes that in nightly iCloud Backup. If iCloud Backup is off, the data is ephemeral — uninstall or device loss wipes it. There is no in-app export. Check at: Settings → your name → iCloud → iCloud Backup.
- No live cross-device sync. State propagates only via the backup → restore cycle.
- Cross-tab state inconsistency. When the same article appears in more than one tab at once (e.g. open in Web and reached via Issues), marking or unmarking it in one tab does not always reliably refresh the other tab's view of it. Toolbar icon, page link styling, and list counts can briefly disagree. Workaround: switch tabs again, or reload the page. Tracked in ROADMAP.
On the iPad itself (recommended — free, no expiry):
- Get the
LRBReader.swiftpmpackage onto your iPad (e.g. via iCloud Drive, then open from the Files app) - Tap to open it in Swift Playgrounds
- Tap Run (▶) — the app launches full-screen
The app runs inside Swift Playgrounds' sandbox. Swift Playgrounds is itself an App Store app, so it never expires and requires no Apple Developer Program enrollment. The only friction is that you launch the app through Swift Playgrounds rather than from the home screen.
On the Mac simulator (for development):
Open LRBReader.swiftpm/Package.swift in Xcode and run on the iPad
simulator.
Installing as a standalone home-screen app (optional):
Going this route requires Apple's signing:
- Free Apple ID via Xcode: 7-day expiry per signing (rebuild weekly)
- Paid Apple Developer Program ($99/yr): 1-year expiry per signing
This is not required for normal use — the Swift Playgrounds path above covers that.