An Ode to Magazines

I absolutely love magazines. I adore going to the nearest bookstore and browsing the colorful combination of style, substance and creativity. I can’t get over “5 ways to be clutter-free” or “The top 7 budget-friendly vacation spots.” But it’s not just the words that grab me – it’s the covers and the pretty pictures. I love holding a magazine in my hands and soaking it all in – including the ads. I know its Marketing 101 to get me to buy their magazine and I really don’t care if I’ve fallen for it. I read everything front to back and then back to front in case I missed anything going the other way.

Current magazines by the bedside

I don’t own an e-reader, obviously, or even an iPad. The only advantage I see they would provide me is condensing all my magazines and books for when I travel. Beyond that, I would miss the touch and feel of a magazine in my hands and being able to vividly see the pictures in their truest form.  Plus, I like to rip pages from magazines and bind them in my own art journal – something I started fresh out of college. It is the original Pinterest. (I did join Pinterest and find it fascinating, but it will never replace my journals, which I can flip through without starting up a machine.)

My magazine buying habits changes as I go through stages in life. Nearly 10 years ago it was all wedding magazines and home decorating. When we bought our new home inWisconsin eight years ago, it was all garden & landscaping. When I started P90X and subsequently running 5Ks, it was running and fitness editions. Now, I’ve changed again. I let my subscriptions to “Bicycling” and “Better Homes & Gardens” go and up’d a subscription to “Yoga Journal” and “Where Women Create.” (But I kept my “Harvard Business Review” because I feel way smart when I read it.)

Sometimes I’ll even go wild and buy a French-language edition just so I have to translate it.

Magazines lay everywhere in my house…by my bed, by the couch and on the kitchen table. I keep some

Current magazines in the office

forever or others I’ll just tear out the best ideas and recycle the remainder.

As long as there are creatives like me who admire a magazines feel, colors and inspiration, then the printing business should be okay.