Magazines

I was thinking about my magazine subscriptions the other day as I was flipping through People, which was a surprise gift from my brother about a year ago. In fact he asked on the phone several weeks into the subscriptions, “Do you get people?’ I took the question to heart, by responding, ‘Well sometimes I do, but you know people can be really hard to figure out.” Of course he was my mystery People magazine subscriber.

As I was leafing through the magazine I realized I don’t know half the celebrities, nor did I care to learn more about them. In fact the best part for me lately is the book review section. Maybe it’s time to break-up this relationship.

My magazine subscriptions probably started with something like Scholastic or another leaflet that came from grade school. They then evolved into buying teen magazines from the grocery store. As a pre-teen I couldn’t wait to join my mother at the grocery. She would shop and I would leaf through the latest Teen Beat, BOP! or the like usually walking out with something to help maintain my Duran Duran obsession. I still have a banker’s box of all these magazines in chronological order, minus the Duran Duran pull-outs (centerfolds that would later decorate my room).

At about that same time I also bought my first Seventeen magazine and must have read it cover to cover including the ads. I can still visualize the young teen model on the cover who had won that year’s model contest and had an all expenses trip to New York City. That turned into a subscription which I received for many years, until Mademoiselle took its place in my life. I must have had Mademoiselle in my life for ten years, from a teen, through college and into my twenties. It was a good magazine for young women-articles that were good and easy to read and fashion that was attainable. But I finally got tired of the same articles each year and turned my attention to a shelter magazine in between my newsstand purchases of bridal magazines.

Southern Living coincided with my new stage in life, and I figured I didn’t need the fashion tips or article on how to snag a man. Looking back at my fashion in those days, maybe I should have kept a fashion magazine in my life, but I was content and longed to look at pictures of interiors and gardens. Again, this relationship went on for about ten years, but I grew tired of that too and stopped subscriptions altogether upon the arrival of my children.

We do receive the music magazine Paste, but I just like it for the CD samplers that come each time. I do enjoy visiting my friend Erin in her Upper West Side apartment, not just for the good coffee and city life but also due to her magazine collection. Of course she should have a good collection given her employer is The New Yorker. Maybe I should just beg her for her castoffs (like Black Book).

So where does that leave me? I am not going to get Red Book or Women’s Day. I already know how to make the Easter Bunny cake and don’t care to read about raising young kids, plus those are what you look at while in the waiting room at the doctors. Vogue is fun to look through, but too out-of-touch with my life.

The good news is this leaves more room in my life for reading books. In the past year my book consumption has picked up so maybe that’s all I need.