A Little Light Reading
Is there such a thing as TOO much light reading? You see, I think I’ve become a magazine addict. I’ve blogged about this before, I believe, but the problem seems to be getting worse. Off the top of my head I can’t tell you to how many magazines I subscribe (or pick up when I’m out and about), but the stack of magazines next to my sofa just continues to grow.
I’d cleaned it up a bit before Mark’s arrival from Paris, but within the past 4 days it’s already back to chaos again. The scariest thing is that as of earlier this week, I had three unread issues of Out magazine, two unread issues of Instict magazine and two unread issues of the Improper Bostonian (among others).
I’ve tackled one Out and one Improper…but that still leaves me with multiple issues of Instinct, plus issues of Passport, Advocate, Blender, Out Traveler, Budget Travel, Conde Nast, Harvard, and Harvard Law Record, and Entertainment Weekly to go through. Things all started going down hill a few months ago when Randy had some United Airlines frequent flyer miles that were about to expire. So, he ordered a bunch of magazines for himself with the points…and offered me some points, too. I’ve not even begun to receive some of them yet, either.
At this rate, I’ll never tackle any of the books I’ve bought in the past 6 months. And there is just not enough toilet time in the world to read all of these magazines before the next issues come out. It doesn’t help that I read the Metro newspaper on the way to work (instead of reading items my magazine mountain). It also doesn’t help that I stay at Randy’s place half the time and get pre-occupied with the magazines that he subscribes to.
Collectively, we give all of our finished magazines to his ex…and that stack is currently quite large. But at least that removes the burden from us and transfers it to him.
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I too once was a magazine adict – a wide range but a lot of the excellent, intelligent but very words mags – Harper’s, Atlantic, New Yorker. It was VERY HARD but years ago I did finally cut them off. I still am upset that I’m missing all kinds of important and great articles that I know I’d like to read – but I finally faced up to the fact that I would never read them (all or ever most). But it was just money pissed down the drain and piles of mags making me feel guilty and really, just a burden. I’m really glad I stopped the insanity and advise you to do the same.
Amen, magazines are addicting and can feel like such an onerous burden. Through the years, the only one (to me) worth actually keeping and getting to “someday” is National Geographic. Well, I used to like “Life”, but it’s long-dead.
Spend your time on books vs magazines. You’ll always remember a good book, but most of magazine stuff just passes through the gray cells and is quickly gone. Books enrich your life, whereas magazines just keep you bizzy.
My 2c.
As a fellow-addict, I agree, wholeheartedly, with Lise and Dave: just say no! I now HAVE to move to Providence in order to have enough room for my saved magazines (many of them professional in nature, in my defense, but…) – and my car trunk is full of the ones I bagged in NOVEMBER in order to clear surfaces for a party….
Books are also a big thing, but, yes, much more readily recalled as things of worth!
i pore through literally dozens of magazines for work mostly. i suppose working in such an ephemeral environment begets the need for a more ephemeral kind of information or knowledge. not that i actually *read* the articles, i just have to look at the picutres and divine some sort of knowledge/meaning/inspiration from them LOLOLOL. — really karl instinct? out? tsk tsk how telling.