What is the one magazine you can’t live without?
Does it have the same person on the cover Every. Single. Month?
Is there always a story of a woman who lost 600 lbs in 40 days?
Does it keep you up to date on the latest alien abductions and secret societies of pig-nosed babies living in the Midwest?
When you finish reading it, are you tempted to go to a flea market and spend $300 buying an antique butter churn to use as a nightstand?
Does it make you want to be a better mom or leave you bashing your head against the wall in shame because you haven’t started teaching your 6 month old how to play the violin yet?
What are you reading and why?
I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I am a serious magazine junkie. I have more subscriptions than I can count. No wait…I’ll give you a number here in a minute…right now I can come up with 9 off the top of my head, but there could very well be more.
I don’t have time to read them either! I have to grab snippets here and there to finish them, like when I am blow-drying my hair. I guess my favorites are Southern Living, In Style, and Real Simple. I luh-huv SL for the gardening and recipes, InStyle for the clothes and makeup, and Real Simple for the organizational tips and other articles. And the pictures are pretty. 🙂
My new favorite is Cottage Living. TONS of good decorating ideas, none of which I will ever get around to implementing, of course.
I love Fine Cooking. And for all you fine cookers out there, I sent in a “tip” and they liked it and are going to publish it in the next few months. So look for me!
I also love reading Martha Stewart Living. I love seeing all those beee-you-tee-ful things she’s done with her house, cottage, barn, summer retreat in the Hamptons, puppy mansion, blah, blah, blah, and hating her for being so wasteful and selfish, but giving all sorts of tips on conservation and building compost bins for your kitchen.
I also read IEEE magazine, which you have never heard of. It’s about engineering, and has really cool articles on new stuff like dancing robots.
I subscribe to Real Simple because I love the little A ha! uses for ordinary things. I also subscribe to Domino and Blueprint just because I usually like to just have ideas in case I ever think I want to change things around.
Then I have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly because it’s weekly and it’s mindless fluff. It also helps me remember which movies to put in my Netflix queue.
I keep all my magazines in the car so I can read them in car line at school or whenever I’m hung up between errands/meetings. Like when you have 30 minutes before your meeting and it’s not enough time to shop, but too much time to get there early.
There are only 2 magazines I subscribe to anymore…on is Taste of Home Magazine and the other is Reader’s Digest. I’m old fashioned, I guess, but I love Reader’s Digest because it is chock full of interesting tidbits I can read on the fly.
One of the airlines that I never travel on gave me the option of cashing in my 5000 miles for magazines. So now I get tons of them. I read the trashy ones at the gym, and save the longer ones for home. Unfortunately, I also get some magazines that require actual brain power to read. Which defeats the entire point of a magazine, in my opinion. I skim those quickly to avoid feeling too guilty about not reading them, and recycle them quickly.
I’m a Taste of Home junkie (gift from my Mom every Christmas) – love the practical recipes, classics, etc. they have in there. That, and looking for the toothpick. 🙂 I get Southern Living (b-day gift from my MIL every year), which isn’t as good as it used to be (I find myself looking at the decorating tips going “eeew! That looks like something from the 70s!”), but it still has good recipes and local activities in the “(Insert name of your region/ state) Living” special sections. All that said, if I had to buy them myself, I probably wouldn’t. Too much good info on the internet, and I can get my Parenting / Women’s Day fix in the waiting room at the allergists office! 🙂
I love my Real Simple magazine. I don’t always have time to read it, but it is the best. It’s got cool and fun ideas for things to try and pretty pictures and a bunch of other nice stuff. But what I really like is the way the pages feel. I’m serious. Touch them. Rub them against your cheek. (I’ve never really done that, but I wouldn’t blame you if you tried it.)
Time Magazine. It’s give a good overview on wot’s happenin’ in the world. I don’t like the recent redesign of the magazine, though…
Real Simple and Health Magazine, mostly for the recipes.
I know exactly what you are talking about Glittersmama, the pages DO feel nice.
I subscribe to only one magazine: POETRY.
I love it. Good contemporary poems, good criticism.
It is my not-so-secret hope to be published in POETRY one day.
I’m a Reader’s Digest gal. Love the funnies, love the inspiring rescue stories when I’m in the mood for some schmultz, and love the variety of topics dealt with in the rest of the mag.
I used to read some others, but they were too full of make-up and hair ads that made me feel yeuchy so I ditched those subscriptions.
I used to order Bon Appetit, but we gave that up with the move in an effort to declutter the house. Sigh. I miss the recipes and the gorgeous pictures.
Mostly I just read books.
I LOVE “Making it Home” for all the parenting tips, cost cutting ideas, and great food and cleaner recipes. Plus, not a single advertisement!
http://www.makingithomemagazine.com/
I get Allure and hubby gets Entertainment Weekly, so I skim that one, too. I also like (but don’t subscribe to) Cooking Light. While i don’t care so much about “light” recipes, that magazine is really beautiful and I’ve gotten some delicious recipes from it. I like the recommendations for beauty and hair products in Allure, and the free offers as well as the fashion tips. I do NOT have my finger on the pulse of the fashion world, so sometimes I need a little insight.
I don’t know if it is technically a mag but I get Cooks Illustrated. If any of you watch America’s Test Kitchen on PBS, it’s put out by the same people. It’s amazing! There are all these recipes that give VERY DETAILED directions and explain WHY you do the things they tell you to (made the flaky biscuits the other night, amazing). They also do reviews of all sorts of kitchen stuff and tell you when the cheap fry pan is just as good or better than the $300 one. Best of all, no advertisers. None. So they are always unbiased. And no, no one is paying me for this illustrious review!
Others: Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Readers Digest (all free from something or other), Newsweek, and National Geograhic Adventurer (tells about all the cool places you can go have an adventure. I’ll never go, but it makes me dream.) All I would give up to keep the Cook’s Illustrated.
I’m a magazine junkie. I HAVE to read mental_floss. I also subscribe to Cookie and LDS Living. I also buy Glamour (because it’s awesome and makes me feel pretty) and (here’s my confession) Cosmopolitan.
And I read a few of those parenting magazines: Parents, American Baby, and the like. My mom and Nana will pass old magazine of theirs to me: Women’s World, Women’s Day, First, Sunset (I really like this one), Birds and Blooms, Better Homes and Gardens …
I have a problem. I think I might need to get help. Yeah.
I’m a sucker for magazines. I get Entertainment Weekly, Cooking Light, Real Simple, O Magazine, Cottage Living, Domino, Country Home, and Brain Child, and Newsweek via subscription.
I also buy In Style, Blueprint, Martha Stewart Living, Wondertime, and Parents or Parenting.
I think Newsweek is the most valuable one I read. It’s informative, eye-opening, educational, and thought-provoking. I’ve really appreciated their reports on the war. I think I trust them more than I trust any of the cable news channels.
I buy Real Simple on occasion but then I read it on holidays. They usually have great SIMPLE tips for REAL life. Guess they picked a good name.
I don’t subscribe. BUT, when I go grocery shopping without the kids I will stand in the longest check-out line just so I can read the trashy celebrity gossip magazines. Sometimes a little self indulgent trash reading is all I need to feel renewed again.
It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but well, that’s me.
I am completely obsessed with the magazine Dwell. I love modern architecture and design, and since I’m trapped in a “country” home, this is the only way I get my fix.
I get a bunch of magazines for free, and I usually skim through most of them. But the only magazine that I actually pay for, and love, is Bon Appetit. Their recipies are so amazing. You can get them online at epicurious.com, but I like having the magazine for easy reference in the kitchen (and I like looking at all the pretty pictures!) Most of the recipes are not very practical if you want something cheap, quick, and easy. But I find it easier to get motivated to cook when I’m trying something new, fun, and a little indulgent.
I used to read Reader’s Digest, not because I ever subscribed to it, but because my father-in-law gave it to us as a Christmas present for the past 2 or 3 years. I didn’t mind the stories and I liked reading the jokes, but I HATED the ads. So my monthly ritual when it would come in the mail consisted of going through it, cover to cover, and ripping out all the ads. The book was half as thick as it was when I started!
Now I just read the Ensign. It makes me want to be a better everything. 😉
Smithsonian magazine is my favorite. The writing is excellent, and I enjoy learning about history and science. Also, I love the articles on artists or art exhibitions.
I can’t believe I am one of the few O readers…it’s the only mag. I subscribe to.
For a plane trip I will buy People, Real Simple, Dwell, Metropolitan Home and sometimes Child or another parenting mag.
Better Homes and Gardens.
Kraft Food and Family is an awesome freebie that has great meal ideas.
But if I could afford it, I would be buying People every week. I don’t know why the beautiful people intrigue me so…
I switch around–I’ll like one like Martha Stewart for a while then get tired of it and let my subscription run out. For a while I was without any then I’ve started picking Family Fun and Parenting and Martha up again.
My favorite though is probably Ellery Queen Mystery Mag and Alfred Hitchcock. Love those two.
I’ve been a loyal TIME reader since ’97 or so, and I even credit a cover story on “Mormon America” as a pivotal moment our family’s religious path.
Real Simple and All You (which I think is only available at Wal-Mart)
I don’t subscribe to anything except a couple of mags my church puts out (the E and the F), but I did purchase and read cover to cover the latest Us magazine… had a story about Starr, the talky show gal who lost a lot of weight the past few years. My poor husband was shocked at my purchase, and I realized that my trashy magazine purchasing habits are approximately one per decade, and we’ve only been married for seven years. Now he knows and will not be shocked when… around 2012 I get a People mag.
Somehow I have gotten on somebody’s short list for free copy’s of Parenting magazine. I have grown to despise that rag. Really, it seems to perpetuate the Mommywars crap in order to sell copy. Bleah. I throw them out unread nowadays.
Oh… I occasionally get the discarded copy’s of Modern Living from my Mom. They are slobbered on and dog eared by the time I am done with them.
The only magazine I pay for other than church publications, is Family Fun. There are always fun ideas in it, kid friendly recipes, and I just enjoy it. I also get it for cheap. I enjoy getting the occasional discards from the library of Better Homes and Gardens, but find most of their home solutions to be out of my price range…so its more just fun to look through.
I have ALOT of magazine subscriptions, Parenting, Parents, Cosmo, Readers digest, Make: But my my favorite is probly Spin. I use to be a musican, and I still like to stay on top of the good stuff going on in the industry, plus it makes me feel cool *blush* hehe
I really like BH & G…they’ve redesigned stuff in the last few months and it now has stuff in it that seems more do-able then before. I liked Real Simple, but not enough to keep getting it monthly. I miss getting a news magazine, but I don’t have time to read it anymore (I used to get Newsweek)…we cut back to save money and while I do miss it, I realize with 2 kids now, it would never get read, it takes me a month to read the one or two magazines I still get!
the only magazines we pay for are the friend and the ensign. boring or what?! we get free issues of american baby and parents and they go straight in the trash. the only parenting mag i read is a gift subscription to mothering. my husband has a gift subscription to… fly tyer. see? booooring. in the past, i have loved our gift subscriptions to national geographic, reader’s digest (LOVE that mag!), bon appetit, sunset… the real simple and family fun magazines sound neat, judging from this post.
i got a thing in the mail for reader’s digest for $10.00 a year. i missed the deadline and am bummed because that would’ve been worth it for me. i like keeping them in my purse or car for downtime.
I don’t have any subscriptions, I’m the book type when I get a chance, but if I need something to flip through on the fly that does not require a lot of real attention I LOVE… catalogs. Yes, retail catalogs.
It doesn’t matter what they are as long as they come free in the mail: Harriet Carter, Harry and David, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn (plus the kids version), Lilian Vernon (sp), etc. It doesn’t matter what they are hawking, it’s like window shopping except without the traffic, blisters, heat/cold, and cranky kids. I never buy anything (well once or twice I have) but I love to look.
I should add that I don’t really get a thrill out of the tool and motorcycle accessory catalogs my hubs gets but computer and electronic rags are fair game too. So silly.
I avoid all mediums that could cause guilt about: beauty, weight, parenting, wifely duties, cooking skills, money issues, smut, or fear of alien abductions.
I only read blogs!
I love to browse through magazines but I have cut down on subscriptions simply because I don’t always take time to read them. But, one magazine I love and enjoy cover to cover (it’s a small one) is MOMSense. It’s the magazine you get when you are in MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and signed up for the MOPS-to-Mom connection. It’s a great read, short enough that I can actually get it read, and full of encouragement!
Sad to say I only get the Ensign and I have a hard time even reading that. We used to get the Reader’s Digest because my inlaws gave it to us as a gift one Christmas but I never liked it enough to renew it.
I use to get National Geographic but I ran out of bookcases so I stopped. My wife gets Better Homes & Gardens, which makes me afraid that I’ll end up with more projects than I know what to do with.
Is it wrong to throw magazines away?
I hate the ads fill most commercial magazines, but other than church mags, we do subscribe to Mother Earth News. It has great ideas about gardening, living off the grid, and simple living.
I’ve ordered Real Simple for just about everybody I know. LOVE that magazine. I’m also a Sports Illustrated junkie. The ‘Leading Off’ photos are always fantastic and Rick Riley, who’s column appears at the end of the mag, makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I’m also a big fan of Self Magazine. The Self Challenge is something I participate in every Spring. The Ensign, the LDS church’s monthly publication, is another on my list. Love the inspiration. I also order Newsweek, National Geographic Adventure, and Backpacking. Now that I’ve listed them all out, I realize I’m spending a ton of money! I really should cancel some and just read them in line at the grocery store or while at the library, but there’s something about recieving a little package of joy each month!
Um… I love Yoga Journal- and you don’t have to be into yoga to love it. They have great articles and recipes and stories of inspiration…
The New Yorker- great articles about stuff you can’t read about anywhere else.
Cooking Light- excellent recipes, also gives me good ideas about what/how to cook, even if I don’t follow the recipe. I don’t actually subscribe though, it was given to me as a gift.
My favorites are Smithsonian and Real Simple, but we’ve let both go ahead and expire. Smithsonian was a gift from a friend and I dearly love it, but it wasn’t getting read as fast as they arrived. Did you ever notice that they never continue an article off to some back page? All articles are finished before the next one starts. I LOVE THAT!
Real Simple was great, but they seem to have 2 subscriber lists: people that get it in the mail before it hits the newsstand and people who get it after. When I had the subscription pre-wedding I was on the early list and it was great, although I felt bad for my friend who was always getting her copy 2 weeks later. Then I resubscribed just before Christmas and we ended up cancelling that because they put me on the late list. Why wait when I can get it at the store sooner? To save money? No thanks, I’ll just buy less issues. And that’s what I told them when I called and cancelled. So there. But I do love the magazine. And the pages ARE yummy.
mental floss!
national geographic
taste of home
We get magazines but I hardly ever read them. I DO read online journals, though. Does that count? My favorite ones are Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Cancer Research, Cancer Cell, and anything cited on Pubmed. 🙂 Uh, I gotta get out more!
The best magazine I read is New York magazine, not to be confused with The New Yorker. It is always the first publication to write something about new trends. Always ahead of things!
Bookmarks…and it only comes once every two months. And it has pictures of stacks and stacks of new books. Delicious.
I’m with Alice:
The New Yorker
Newsweek (for the shorter articles)
Consumer Reports (invaluable!)
Parenting magazines make me want to tear my veins out with a crochet hook. Sometimes I’ll buy The Economist, Foreign Affairs and…Lucky (because I am a riddle, wrapped in an enigma.)
i like real simple, although i don’t subscribe yet. i do read The Writer, Writer’s Digest, and Poets & Writers. and my mom so nicely buys me a subscription to Reader’s Digest each year.
Occasional reads: Wired, Photography, Pacific Coast Sportfishing, People, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Popular Science, Guideposts.