The rags I read
NS March 15th, 2009
I’m a huge magazine reader. As early as middle school, I loved to flip through the pages of various glossies. Back then, I read the insipid tween and teen magazines aimed at girls and young women. I read them not because I really wanted fashion tips, makeup lessons and to learn about my latest celebrity crush (because I rarely got those), but because that was all that was available to me. I found them quite boring but something about the way magazines are written, laid out and packaged — even the way they smell and feel — held a certain allure for me. Even when my appetite for books was at its most voracious, I never stopped flipping through those smooth magazine pages.
When I got to college I moved on from the Glamour and Cosmo crowd and started reading Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, US News and World Report and The Onion. Slightly more grown up but still not hitting all the right marks. I have yet to find the perfect, dream magazine that covers all my favourite topics but for that I am glad. I like reading a variety of sources to get a broad spectrum of ideas, though now that magazines are so expensive it makes it slightly more painful to my wallet. I do, of course, read a lot of online magazines as well but I still savor the experience of physically turning the pages of my favourite rags (called so with great affection, not disdain) and consider it a leisure activity in its own right.
Henceforth (can I say that without sounding really strange/old fashioned/pretentious?), I’m sharing the list of my current favourites, both print and online. Check some out if you’ve got the time and inclination.
The Green Parent — “Raising kids with conscience”
Politick! — “A new cross-party magazine of political gossip, scussion, interviews, satire and opinion for the new generation of politicos”
Bad Idea — “The smart option. Young journalism. Ideas. Opinion”
Ms. — “More than a magazine — a movement”
Mslexia — “For women who write”
Adbusters — “Journal of the mental environment”
Mothering — “Inspiring natural families since 1976″
Brain, Child — “The magazine for thinking mothers”
Hip Mama — “A feminist parenting zine for all kinds of families”
Mother Jones — “Smart, fearless journalism” (online only)
Common Dreams — “Join the movement. For the greater good” (online only)
- Banal Breakdown , Reviews and Recommendations
- Comments(5)
I love magazines as well, but don’t buy them nearly as much as I used to ($$$!). I read Mother Jones, too, but we have it available in print here not just online!
I used to read the Green Parent until I ran out of money.
I’m a twice a year binge mag reader. I never buy them (not eco) but when at the dentist’s I develop suddenly a need to know what Jolie wore to the Oscars. And the mags are old si it was last Oscars….
I’ve also never found my perfect mag. I think blogs are filling that void. Or more precisely, my blog reader. Like a home-made mag…. without the cutting and peeling glue of your fingers.
For reasons that I cannot explain, I used to get really sucked into the British celebrity gossip magazines (Heat and their ilk). Fortunately I left that compulsion behind in Blighty.
@Chloe – I didn’t realise there was a print edition, I’ve never seen it here. Hmm.
@Anji – Ha! Yeah, that’ll do it.
@Mon – I admit to picking up trash mags in waiting rooms too. There’s something alluring about the neon pink headlines and plethora of exclamation marks that pulls me in.
@ A Free Man – I used to read Heat from time to time but haven’t picked one up in awhile now . It’s hilarious the way it’s written; so catty and deliberately outrageous. Have you found a comparable mag in Oz?