January 25, 2011--Magazines...

Another magazine arrived in the mail today. That makes three new ones this week and it's only Tuesday! Okay, I confess, I love magazines. I love the texture of the glossy paper, I love the smell of fresh ink, although I have noticed that the National Geographics can give me a slight headache because they are soooo strong smelling when I first open the plastic wrapper. I love seeing all the ads for clothing and exotic vacations, and even the make-up ads, despite the fact that I don't wear make-up. I love reading the articles and stories in the magazines I get, knowing that someone, some where, was sitting at a computer typing out each word, hoping that they would land the piece in the magazine and actually did. It gives me hope for myself and some of the pieces I am working on.
There's been talk among writing groups that magazines are failing; readership and subscriptions are down, that magazines go under all the time. And yet, there are still plenty of them on the shelves when I go to the bookstore. So many in fact that it's hard to choose which ones to read, let alone subscribe to. And that doesn't take into account all the ezines which never appear in print and which I am beginning to find and subscribe to as well.
At last count, and I've probably missed one or two, I subscribe to sixteen in print journals--that's a lot by any one's standards, but the list is varied and I feel it reflects my wide range of interests. These sixteen are the ones that have stood the test of time, are the ones I read when they arrive, and often save because they contain useful info in them. I have had many other magazine subscriptions over the years which have arrived in their respective plastic sleeves only to be recycled still unopened. They are the ones I thought I might want to get but discovered after a month or two, that the topics covered no longer interested me, or the format and layout were too hyper for me to be able to curl up and read in any relaxing kind of way.
So, here's my list of magazines that I subscribe to:
More, TIME, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Sun, Writer's Digest, Poet and Writer's, The Writer's Chronicle, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Rolling Stone, Better Homes and Gardens (a gift from my husband), Country Garden (a gift from my mom), One Story,Women's Health, and Heron's Dance. If I had more money, I'd probably subscribe to a lot more...what magazines do you support?