Before the advent of the internet, I consumed mass quantities of glossy rags. That was also before I had a wife, four kids, a business, and a mortgage.
Most mags I read today come free in the mail, or I inherit them from various people. Can’t afford the old habit anymore, but I do still love ‘em.
Backwoods Home magazine is a good one, and very FReeperish, actually. I’ve been wanting to subscribe to it, just as soon as I can dump my townhouse in the burbs and move further out from the “metro”. (i.e., not anytime soon. I’d move further out than that even, if I wasn’t dependent on a paycheck.)
Popular Science and Popular Mechanics are worth their weight.
We get Birds and Blooms and Outdoor Photography. :)
:}
They'll probably last until I get around to buying an iPad or similar device, suitable for use where I read the mags (the porcelain throne).
Once upon a time, I was a magazine junkie. Probably reached a peak in the early nineties, at several dozen active subscriptions. I actually had a card file to keep track of subscriptions and renewals. Nowadays, it all comes through the glass fiber.
At the office, I used to subscribe to a Ziff Davis rag, Computer Shopper. I would stash back issues in an extra bookcase in my office. Early on (up 'til about 1997), each issue was thick as a telephone book for a moderate metropolis. Most of the content consisted of dense ads for every conceivable (at the time) computer product. It did have reasonable editorial content, printed on better paper than the ads, but, without the ads, the heft of the book would be comparable to one of today's sorry mags. After the new millennium dawned, the Shopper got thinner and thinner until either it ceased publication or I forgot to renew (memory fails). Why get ink on your fingers thumbing through a magazine to find what a few clicks on Google will find?
I get one subscription. Entertainment weekly. I like it for the most part. It discusses upcoming tv shows, movies, books, and music. It does not get into politics too much. It is basically a magazine that gives facts on these areas.
I just bought a couple of magazines the other day.
.45 ACP M1911A1 from Cheaper Than Dirt.
Oh, I mean, Hemmings Auto News, and Vintage Truck.
Because I don't bring my laptop in the crapper.
Back in the 1980s, I had over a dozen magazines coming to the house. Now, having let National Geographic subscription lapse (after over 30 years), I am down to only WIRED magazine which will probably also not be renewed. After all, you can read pretty much every WIRED article for free online. Why bother with the subscription? Also, they spray so many weird colors and patterns into the magazine that I can hardly read the text anymore because it hurts my eyes.
I read this one. I have read it since 1980. If you like stereo equipment is is the best there is. It is also the only one I read.
Aviation History, Naval History, Biblical Archaeology. That’s all that is left, really rare specialty mags.
I buy some shelter magazines that show historic houses and their decoration. It just gives me huge pleasure and a lot of good ideas. This is an occasional indulgence.
I also buy This Old House which sows me how to fix stuff. Not all of their tutorials are online. I don’t buy every month, just occasionally when they have an article about a project I’m doing or might be doing. I keep them, and they’ve saved me money.
Range, American Cowboy and Gun Mags.
National Review mag. for me; World mag. (Christian news) for wife; Clubhouse (Chrsitian) and Highlights for daughter.
Can you guess one of my obsessions?