I just received my monthly copy of Smart Money magazine – informing me that this is the last issue. I’ve also been running short of magazines to read at breakfast, so I’m at least 1 magazine shy.
So what new magazine subscription would you recommend for me? Here are my current subscriptions:
The Atlantic
Smart Money (ending this month)
Freethought Today
Skeptic
Free Inquiry
Scientific American
The Journal of Irreproducible Results (starting soon)
Consumer Reports
I also get a couple of throw-away magazines that I’ll occasionally browse, but they never even last 1 day: Costco Magazine from Costco (duh), and Via from AAA.
My hobbies: movies, investing, skepticism/atheism, science.
My philosopy: liberal, humanist.
So I’m currently without any financial magazines (after this issue of Smart Money), but your recommendation doesn’t have to be a financial magazine. I’ve never found a magazine about movies that isn’t awful, but if you know of one, I’d be ecstatic. I’ve got plenty of skeptic / atheism magazines, but if there’s one that’s significantly better than the ones I already get, I might consider replacing one of them. A very good general magazine would also be interesting.
I haven’t looked at Money in a while, but wasn’t impressed when I did. I’ve had enough “Hot stock/fund/bond/<insert other investment here> of the day” to be skeptical. Buy and hold index funds is more my style, but you can’t sell magazines based on this style.
I used to subscribe to Utne many years ago, back in my “big government is trying to keep us down”, counter-culture, conspiracy of the day/week/year phase.
I’m a periodicals librarian, so I am very picky about what we actually subscribe to at home. We get National Geographic, Archaeology, Cook’s Illustrated, and Game Informer. Oh, and Runner’s World. We used to get Harper’s but I found myself reading less than half of some of the issues.
Hmm. Tell me more about National Geographic. My impression from my childhood was that it was full of picture stories about exotic places. How would you characterize its content these days?
Granta. The highpoints for me are the lengthy narrative nonfiction, memoir, and investigative reporting pieces. There are also some literary short stories and photography that are usually enjoyable. Occasional poetry selections I ignore and thus can’t comment on the quality. Since it’s a quarterly, and bound as a book, it’s easy to stay on top of, and convenient to shelve. Each issue is organized around a theme.
There’s plenty to sample on their website if you want to get a feel for it. Basically, it’s like three months worth of the type of longer pieces you find in “The Atlantic” with a slightly more British or international POV. No one-page articles or blurb news.
did you ever subscribe to Entertainment Weekly? I kind of like reading about media even though I don’t participate in a lot of it. last time I read it, it was full of TV shows I’ve never seen. makes me feel old.
The Economist is one I’m considering (along with a few others mentioned in this thread). Just for giggles, I’ve requested free sample copies of the potentials from their websites. All they can say is “no”…
Someone gave me a gift subscription to The Economist. I enjoy it so much, I may have to cough up the dough to renew. Its very good, but pricey, at $150/year for weekly issues.
