At breakfast, I usually skim our local paper, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. I'll be frank. It has turned into a rag, little better than a local USA Today. By the time I finish my cereal, I'm done with the paper, but I still have a tiny glass of oj, two vitamins, and a mug of coffee to consume. I turn next to magazines, which are far more satisfying than the paper.
My love for magazines started at a young age with my very first subscription: Highlights Magazine. Even as a first grader, I enjoyed getting mail. Eventually, I read my sister's Seventeen and later Elle came to my house every month. For a while in high school, I read The New Yorker, though I really wanted it for the cartoons and the fiction.
Fashion, literature, and fitness were the topics I was most interested in until I picked up a copy of Martha Stewart Living not long after it was first published. It was almost a relief to find it, too. Just the things I was interested in, good writing, beautiful photography…the same qualities I value in the blogs I read. In the late 1990s, I learned to knit from an issue of MSL. My baking improved dramatically from reading issue after issue. I've been disappointed in the magazine lately, but I still subscribe. I'm sentimental that way. When I see an issue in the mailbox, it does make me look forward to finishing whatever work I have to do, making a cup of tea, and settling in to enjoy the good writing and photos, even if I'm not as interested in the subjects of an issue.
One of the things that bothers me about MSL, about many magazines, is that I'm directed to visit the website for more information. Allow me to whine…if I'm in my cozy chair, tea in hand, flipping magazine pages, the last thing I want to do is bring Rupert or George into the picture. I'm old fashioned, I suppose. I want a magazine to be complete, to stand on its own. Sure, I love the MSL website, but I'll go there for different reasons.
When I get my hair done, one of the things I look forward to is looking at a fashion magazine. I no longer subscribe to any (Vogue tempts me on occasion), but I do enjoy the fantasy of many of them. What do I subscribe to?
The New Yorker
Martha Stewart Living
PieceWork (brand new subscription for me)
Neal gets National Geographic, which I also enjoy, and a biking magazine that seems to be so much wrapping for ads that I think he's going to let it go.
What magazines do you enjoy?
