I've always loved magazines, to the extent that I used to look forward to going the dentist so I could read the magazines in the waiting room. Now I'm grown up and I subscribe to a bazillion magazines and counting. I love magazines so much that I have a hard time throwing them away. Look at this stack in my room.
I'm going to read these all. Some day. I swear.
They keep stacking up, and I'm not even getting rid of the ones I have read. It is a burden. Joe got me an iPad Mini for Christmas, which I love, and now I'm thinking about Next Issue. You pay a monthly subscription for an app that you lets read unlimited magazines on your iPad. Just reading the list of magazines involved made me realize this may be a dream come true. Bon Appetit, Marie Claire, EW, People, Lucky, The New Yorker, and more. I could hold onto them forever — for whatever reason I feel compelled to do so — without taking up shelf space. It's gonna put the airport bookshop out of business and keep magazines from folding.
Maybe. But I should I commit to another monthly fee? Yikes. If I subscribe to one app, then I wouldn't have an ungainly stack of magazines. But does the physical presence of a magazines compel one to read them? What do you think? My heart says yes to the app, but my head says no. For now. I might switch over and try it out when I have to renew my People magazine.
I was clearing through the pile a bit, or at least trying to keep it from collapsing on itself. When I saw Angelina's mug the second time, I thought it looked familiar. Check this out. It's the British Marie Claire I got on vacation in France on the right and my normal U.S. subscription on the left.
Now Marie Claire is my absolute favorite women's print magazine, but this makes me think we are getting the short end of the stick in the U.S. Only 238 hot new looks to 419 for the Brits? The British magazine is bigger and has about 100 more pages. Angie looks a little tanner in the UK photo. And the headlines are saucier too. I may or may not have bought this solely because I needed to know more about the "I hid a crack pipe in the Ugg boots" tagline. C'mon, you know you're curious about that too. I've never seen a crack pipe referenced on American mags besides Whitney's tabloid exploits. Too soon?
I told Joe about the magazine discrepancy, including the difference in headlines and my preference for the British version. "When you saw the crack pipe headline, did you just throw a 100 euro note down on the counter and walk out with it?" he said. Haha, no, but you don't want to know how many dollars I paid for this particular magazine with the exchange rate. Add it to the pile!
