Friday Question #33
Which magazines, if any, do you subscribe to at home? Do you have time to read them? Do you throw them away when you are done reading them?
I subscribed to a lot of magazines when I was in college – Glamour, Marie Clare, Fitness, Women’s Health – because I actually had time to read them. I’ve since added Architectural Record, Motor Trend, and (am trying to subscribe to) Entertainment Weekly.
I used to devour a magazine in one sitting, because I was eager to read something new. Now I barely find time to read anything at all – except for the newspaper, on the train. I usually (over the month) read most of Glamour and Marie Clare, but only parts of Fitness and Women’s Health – and that is if I’m feeling healthy. I skim the others.
I save them for about a year (in magazine holders on my shelf), then recycle them. Except Architectural Record. I hold on to that one for some reason.
This makes me wonder… why do I subscribe to so many? I suppose I miss them, when I don’t have them. I think I am going to drop my Fitness subscription though. It never has anything new, and I like Women’s Health much better!
Themocracy
I go in cycles. NO magazines, then lots. The problem is that after a while there just is nothing new to put into a stupid magazine. ESPECIALLY the fitness ones. I’ve truly had it this time – when this goes down, those are gone. I’ve gone two rounds with good housekeeping, and again more ads than content and really annoying. The ones I’ll keep will be scientific america, national geographic, photography, and… that is probably it. We have a couple more scientific ones that come in too, but lets face it – when you’re married to a rocket scientist this kind of stuff just shows up. And seriously? I don’t get it. Pages and pages on BOLTS. *snore*
Since I work at a library and am in charge of receiving all of the journals we subscribe to, I get enough magazines at work. Therefore, I personally subscribe to exactly zero. One less thing to clutter up my house.
Self and Allure, those I’ve had for years. Also HR Magazine and Beverage World for work. *snore*!
I get Southern Living because my grandmother gives it to me for my birthday every year (whether I want it or NOT). I really don’t ever read it, due to time issues – though I seem to have plenty of time to read BLOGS when I want to!! I do check it for a recipe if I need an idea. I recycle them, which means that I save them for about two years stacked up next to the recycling bins. My stack is almost as tall as the can bin it is next to. We don’t have recycling pick up so it is up to us to take them, which is NEVER. I have good intentions. Kevin gets Popular Science and Popular Mechanics.
I subscribe to seventeen and cosmogirl…i usually read them in one time and then they lay around dads house..haha
I just subscribe to one Canadian women’s magazine – Chatelaine. It’s an annual gift from my mom. And I hardly ever have time to read it, sadly. I do pick up the occasional magazine at the news stand, but even then I don’t often read it all the way through either.
I am currently addicted to wedding magazines, but I suspect that will wear off after a few months 😉
I get one magazine- Real Simple. I would like to get Bust, Mother Jones and Bitch too though.
Katie subscribes to People and I get Rolling Stone and Wired. We used to get a lot more, but have scaled back because we never read them all.
And they pretty much all get recycled when finished.
I subscribe to a lot of magazines. I read most, skim through others. A few I keep for a while, the rest, I recycle as soon as I am finished with them.
I subscribe to Marie Claire; and about three different travel magazines. After I read them I leave them behind on the train in hopes that someone else will pass their train time with a magazine; or I will leave them at the laundry mat after I do laundry. Lord knows you have puuuh=lenty of time in the laundry map to read a magazine.
I used to get a number of them (Elle Decor, Shape, Essence, Simple Living) and when I stopped them I have to admit that I didn’t miss them. I thought that I would; but I didn’t, of course catalogs try to take their place and I usually have staples on hand (Crate and Barrel, CB2, Design Within Reach, Room & Board, Pottery Barn Teen, West Elm) in any case I barely have time to flip through anything, as for true reading it is primarily done online. I read this really interesting piece about fur babies with a taste for laces 😉
I love cosmo but I don’t have any that i get in the mail. .. Also my new fav. is the magazine Parents. I love that .
Kyra – I am the same way! For about a year, I didn’t have any, then I got addicted again. And you are SO right about the health and fitness magazines – it is the SAME stuff over and over and over… it gets so old.
Odie – Good point! Can you read them at work if you want? 😉
diane – Beverage World! You’re too cute 🙂
Beth – Southern Living… I can only imagine how good that is. Maybe you should hold on to those copies for me… just kidding! Hey, at least you have good intentions to recycle them!
Danielle – So does that mean he reads them as well? 😛
suze – Oh… I loved some of the wedding mags I found. I was happy to get rid of them the day after the wedding though! I was done at that point!
sizzle – The only one of those I have ever heard of is Real Simple! I am going to have to google the others…
kapgar – Ah, People. I always felt like it was a more classy tabloid… and I loved it 😀
Robin – Sounds like you are on the same plan as me. Only, I mostly skim now. HA HA.
Gina (Mannyed) – You’re such a nice person. I hope people DO read them! Which Travel mags do you like? I’ve been trying to find a good one.
de – Hey! I read that too! Funny! Did you read the article about the fur baby who pooped on the floor then got a spanking? Probably not. I am not sure if that one got published. 😛
Courtney Ilax – Your Glamour ran out?! Parents sounds like a good one!
Just Communications, published by the Association of Computing Machinery. It’s the academically-oriented organization’s magazine intended to bring computing topics to a more-general audience…
I used to subscribe to Motor Trend, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, PC Gamer (can you tell I was a gamer nerd as a kid??), Highlights for Children, Popular Mechanics, and probably others I’m forgetting… I don’t get them anymore though — for the last few years, I’ve only gamed socially, if that, and don’t have time for the others.
I’ve been going back-and-forth for a couple years about subscribing to The Economist – probably as a web-only subscription, since I don’t care to fill my apartment with a hefty weekly news magazine. 🙂 But, like Communications, I don’t have time to read that magazine anywhere near fully each week, which makes a web subscription hard to justify (especially at some $90/year! And the print subscription is like $120/year)…
Yeah Kim it did.. I while ago .. Which i love that one to. it’s just to much $$ to buy all of them at the store for 3-4 dollars a magazine.
Travel magazines I’d recommend are ‘National Geographic Traveler’ and a relatively new one called ‘Culture + Travel’ (it’s available free of charge, I think at: http://www.cultureandtravel.com )
I currently get 3:
– Vanity Fair
– Playboy
– Giant
I normally read Vanity Fair from cover to cover, although I still have some back issues that have articles I want to read.
As for “reading it for the articles”, that is actually the case with Playboy. Oh, my wife and I look at the pics, with her comments “wow, nice rack on her”, but each issue already has some good fiction, interviews and entertaining articles.
Giant. Sucks. I’ve been getting this magazine for free for 4 years now and each new issue takes me under 15 mins to go through before it gets tossed in the recycle bin.
As for what I do when I am done, I keep a few issues of VF and PB around, but when I’m done, they get put into the recycle bin. If it’s a really good article, I will either find it online and link to it, or cut the article from the magazine and put it into a binder of stuff that impressed me.
We used to get Entertainment Weekly, but the coverage started getting pretty poor, so we didn’t renew at the end of the last subscription period. We also got Newsweek for a while, but decided not to renew it due to too much else to read, not enough time.
E – Sometimes it seems like the most expensive magazines are just heavy and filled with ads. Is that what Communications is like? I doubt it 🙂
Courtney Ilax – I agree. The subscriptions are usually $1 per issue. That’s just crazy!
Odie – Ooo, I already like the Culture and Travel website from one peak. I better check it out!
martymankins – Isn’t it surprising how much a magazine can suck (Giant)? Steven subscribed to Details, because he thought it would talk about fashion, but it’s so awful, he does about the same thing. I am not sure if he even gives it 15 minutes though 😉