What Magazines Do You Read?

The front page story Kos just put up got me thinking.

More of my reading in the last few years is on the internet rather than printed material, and I have stopped renewing some of my subscriptions lately. I'm sure some part of declining magazine circulations is due to this phenomenon. But there are some magazines I still subscribe to...

Here's a list of my current subsciptions and a number from 1 to 10, 1 meaning, "I almost never read any part of this magazine. It just ends up on my coffee table," to 10 meaning, "I read this magazine cover to cover the day I get it."

Mental Floss	     3
Scientific American  7
Mother Jones	     4
The Planetary Report 9
Seed		     6
free inquiry	    10
Skeptical Inquirer   8

I thought about this because I realized I have no subscriptions to news magazines, and only Mother Jones on the issues/politics topic. I do consider my self a bit of a news/politics junkie and think I am well informed on current events.

Is there a news or politics magazine that you consider indespensible? What, if any would you recommend?

Please post your own subscriptions with ratings.

•  I get all my news from the tubes!

  by RKS on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:12:52 AM PDT

  •  Me too

    No magazines at all.

    I just read Salon.com, the local university newspaper and newsletters, and blogs, blogs, blogs!!

    by rcald on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:45:44 AM PDT

•  Mother Earth News. Occassionaly I will be in the

  library and will read Dragon.

  by msstaley on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:16:35 AM PDT

  •  I grew up reading

    Mother Earth News!  Maybe I should get my own now.  I'm glad you reminded me.  I loved all the cool ideas for making stuff out of nothing, and the idea that lots of people besides me wanted to take care of the earth.  

    by LAMaestra on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:06:27 AM PDT

•  Not much political print.

  The tubes move much faster.  Some Harpers, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs.  New Yorker every week.  Most of the "every issue" mags around here are "other":

  Analog
  Archaeology
  Ceramics Monthly
  Clay Times
  Home Power
  Make
  2600

  by Crashing Vor on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:17:57 AM PDT

•  Harper's

  or is that too middle-brow? I rarely read any of the mags you mention (although I think I've read at one time or another most if not all of them). I do rely on the blogosphere to point me to relevant magazine links on a daily (if not hourly) basis. My magazine buys are almost all music related; my monthly treat to myself.

  by dilford on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:19:08 AM PDT

•  The New Yorker

  Always, The New Yorker.

  There have been some devastating commentaries of late by the likes of Steve Coll and, in the latest issue, Sy Hersh.  Then there's Jane Mayer, who covers the Bush administration's use of torture and extraordinary renditions like no other reporter. And on and on.

  by SusanHu on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:20:07 AM PDT

  •  Yup. And Elizabeth Kolbert on the

    environment, not to mention the Comments editorial section which almost always leads with politics (and the war, these days).  A variety of great editorial writers have a lot of insight, led by Hendrich Hertzberg's brilliant writing.

    The New Yorker has been a must through thick and thin for over 48 years in this household.  Other magazines come and go but The New Yorker is forever if you're a political junkie and beyond.

    by oldpro on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:10:17 AM PDT

•  I read cultural/ political mags..

  I have subs to the New Yorker and NY Review of Books, as well as the Nation, which needs our support as a terrific investigative weekly.

  by Owl of Minerva on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:21:39 AM PDT

•  new yorker

  harpers
  wired

  ...and the best one of all
  The Funny Times

  by jancw on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:23:28 AM PDT

•  hmm

  The Economist and US Weekly for comic relief!

  by michael1104 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:24:38 AM PDT

•  Lots of plastic wrapped journals

  Since many academic journals have a 12 month embargo, I still have to subscribe in order to remain abreast of current events and debates in my fields of study. I have to subscribe to be able to read the online versions of the printed journals (what a waste of dead trees!)  Most end up going in the trashcan still in their plastic wrapping.

  by Sharon Jumper on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:24:58 AM PDT

•  Most of mine

  are magazines I read for work (i.e. I'm trying to get published in)--Poetry, The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, etc. My girlfriend and I also get The New Yorker (of which I read about one article a month), Playboy (for the articles, honest--if I want porn it's way more available online).

  But the two magazines I've been reading with a lot more interest these days are Rolling Stone and Wired, and I recommend them both.

  by incertus on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:27:34 AM PDT

  •  I do something similar

    I often just buy copies of magazines I'd like to be published in!

    by mefpdx on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:26:27 PM PDT

•  My favorite

  La Cucina Italiana

  by quaoar on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:29:29 AM PDT

•  a mixture of fun and news: everything is politics

  Harpers, Outside, Rolling Stone, and American Photo, while not news magazines, frequently have in-depth news and analysis stories.  The photography magazine will sometimes feature war reporters, genocide, poverty, Katrina.  That's right: everything is politics.  

  Harpers
  Peaceworks magazine
  Rolling Stone
  American Photo Magazine
  Outside

  by Kayakbiker on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:30:30 AM PDT

•  Maxim

  by RandyMI on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:31:38 AM PDT

•  Harper's, The Nation

  Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.  For website, see.

  by ybruti on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:31:57 AM PDT

•  Out and Proud New Jersey

  by rserven on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:32:12 AM PDT

•  My list

  The New Yorker
  The Atlantic
  Entertainment Weekly
  Cook's Illustrated
  Harper's
  ESPN: The Magazine
  Blender
  Newsweek
  The Green Bag

  by Adam B on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:32:32 AM PDT

  •  Must be a lawyer thing

    see mine below -- 4 of your 9 are on my list of 8, and I often read ESPN and Harper's although I don't subscribe.

    by jsmdlawyer on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:52:51 AM PDT

    •  You ought to get the Green Bag

      Fantastic quarterly legal journal of whimsy and brief articles.  (Note: I'm involved with its almanac.)

      by Adam B on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:04:06 AM PDT

      •  Green Bag's article...

        Prelude to Armageddon: Advice and Consent on Supreme Court Nominations was particularly well done.

        by KnowVox on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:53:21 AM PDT

        •  Gosh.

          Of all the articles to single out, this one?

          I'd go with Kevin Underhill's "If Great Literary Works Had Been Written By Lawyers", parts one and two:

          James Joyce
          Ulysses, Esq.

          ... I remember the day we were sitting in the big conference room he in his grey tweed suit and his new wingtips the day he got me to sign the engagement letter yes first we discussed expenses and then I touched the pen yes and he asked me to sign and I wouldnt answer first only looked out the big glass window and saw the lawyers and messengers and assistants and receptionists and of counsels and the devil knows who else from the ends of the earth and from the other window the sun crimson across the long table like Manhattan as a girl when I was a Flower of the mountain yes and I put the pen in my hair like the legal assistants did or shall I wear a red yes and how he offered me a contingent fee agreement and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and I took the pen and signed yes and dated it and we had it notarized and he asked if I could advance expenses yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

          by Adam B on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:07:45 PM PDT

•  The New Republic n/t

  by AnnArborBlue on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:32:51 AM PDT

•  My list

  New York Review of Books
  The Nation

  My professional journals: TESOL Quarterly, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning are the most prominent.

  by MoDem on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:36:59 AM PDT

•  National Geographic

  Only because my friend got me a Christmas subscription as a present. I've been getting in now for two years.  It's wonderful.

  Also, I do browse through a lot of fashion magazines.  

  As far as serious magazines, I've been starting to read the Nation online.  

  by Dianna on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:40:08 AM PDT

  •  I got the National Geographic

    for my B-Day from my wife.

    It is a great magazine.
    I still have my grandfather's from the 1920s and 30s.

    by vassmer on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 01:18:45 PM PDT

•  here is mine

  newsweek
  the nation
  golfworld
  used to get time(before anne  coulter issue)

  read golfworld first!

  by JOEL1954 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:40:31 AM PDT

•  Playboy...yes I actually read it

  It leans pretty left, and not just so it battles the right on free speech issues to remain in print. It goes much deeper than that. They know their supreme court issues too.

  by bobinson on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:43:27 AM PDT

  •  Nothing brings ecstasy like....

    reading about "supreme court issues".... in the john. LOL

    by KnowVox on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:56:42 AM PDT

•  Home and Garden mags

  I only subscribe to home and garden magazines.  I used to get Fortune and Black Enterprise, but I stopped both.  I might start up Black Enterprise again, since it's such a great magazine.  

  I get Child and can't seem to cancel my subscription.  Child is just ridiculous.  I get so tired of seeing fashion spreads with babies in $450 jeans or articles like, "Birthday Party Ideas for Cheap!" and suggestions of getting handmade invites done under $1000.  Parents magazine, I used to get but it is just useless to my life.  It's definitely geared toward the white population.  

  So now, I get This Old House, the National Garden Club's magazine and Better Homes and Garden (somehow my Child subscription is tied to my BHG subscription and no one can tell me how to cancel the Child one).  BHG has surprised me, since I actually do use the ideas and recipes in it.

  I also randomly get Mother Earth, Body & Soul and Dwell.  I think those were gift subscriptions.  I certainly didn't subscribe to them.  I don't get them every month though.  More like every other month or every 3 months.

  All my other magazines, I stopped subscribing and read them online or get them from a doctor's office.

  by fabooj on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:43:49 AM PDT

  •  Child got me too

    I'm not sure how but the damned thing keeps turning up all the time.  

    by lonestar canuck on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:46:15 AM PDT

    •  What I don't get about it

      Is that it started coming when I was pregnant with my oldest kid.  I never asked for it and I certainly never paid for it.  I wanted it to stop cluttering my front step. I've mailed, called, faxed and emailed for the last 2 years for it to stop.  When I went to renew my BHG subscription a couple of weeks ago, I saw this $22 charge.  Checked my profile and sure enough, I just renewed Child along with BHG.  I called again to cancel and spoke to 8 people who all told me that if I canceled my Child subscription, that'll cancel my BHG one too.  Everyone thought it was weird, but "there's really nothing we can do.  Let the subscription go, then renew just the BHG."  That's what I was trying to do in the first place!  

      But what really bothers me, is that I get a lot of magazines delivered for about 3 - 6 months and then the renewal notices.  I didn't even ask for these things to show up at my place.  

      by fabooj on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:58:09 AM PDT

  •  Well, I look at the average magazine

    aimed at women in general and mothers in particular as just. plain. advertising.  I think all the objective useful articles in one of those might take up about ten pages, printed double sided.  That means that you are looking at ridiculous amounts of advertising, clumsily dressed up as informative articles.

    I really have to wonder about their intended audience.  Some of those products are just either insanely expensive(how long does an under 3 child fit in any given outfit? 4 months?  6 months?)  or just plain frivolous.  I always laugh at how completely deprived my kids were.  No diaper wipe warmers for them!

    by Fabian on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:06:16 AM PDT

•  Rolling Stone

  and Southern Living - the recipes are good...in Southern Living, not in Rolling Stone.

  by lonestar canuck on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:46:52 AM PDT

•  Can't say I always

  get to them all, but:

  The New Yorker
  The American Prospect
  Washington Monthly
  The Atlantic
  In These Times
  Newsweek
  Entertainment Weekly
  Rolling Stone

  by jsmdlawyer on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:50:19 AM PDT

•  love my magazines

  Vanity Fair
  New Yorker
  Harper's
  Time Out NY
  New York
  Paper

  by akr nyc on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:50:30 AM PDT

•  asdf

  Newsweek
  The Nation
  The New Yorker

  I don't read any of them cover to cover, but I can't imagine life without them.

  I too cancelled Time when Coulter was their cover girl.
  I was tired of it anyway, and that was the last straw.  I don't miss it at all.

  by myrealname on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:51:15 AM PDT

•  Just for laughs,

  at the library(I don't buy it), The Weekly Standard.

  by irate on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:54:06 AM PDT

•  NYRB

  The New York Review of Books is my main print-source read for politics and culture. The rest I get online.

  If you like Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, the kind of quality journalism written by and for thinking adults,  the NYRB is worth the price of subscription. Sometimes, maybe only a single article will be worth your attention - you just might not be all that interested in the musical influences that shaped Raphael's style of painting - but that one article that is worth the read will make up for those you skip.

  by The Raven on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:56:44 AM PDT

  •  And the best part

    Is the "Personals" section. A laff riot in every issue!

    by The Raven on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:57:27 AM PDT

  •  I have been thinking

    about subscribing, but for whatever reason have never gotten around to doing it.  Every time I read one, I love it.  I think you just persuaded me to expand my subscription list from 8 to 9.

    by jsmdlawyer on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:59:30 AM PDT

•  My list

  Natural History Magazine

  The Guardian Weekly (newspaper, actually)

  New Yorker but I find it takes me too long to read all the articles I want........

  I liked Mother Jones a lot, but simply can't keep up with all the magazines I'd like to read. If only the dentist's office had things like Mother Jones, eh?

  by LNK on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 10:58:31 AM PDT

•  Just entertainment

  Newsweek
  Cosmo (a gift)
  Scrapbooking (a gift)

  At the Friends of the Library sale I get Southern Living, National Geographic, Photography Today, Parents, PC World, and sometimes Redbook and Ladies Home Journal.  You just can't beat 5 cents each!

  I get real news online, but I enjoy a magazine where I can't take my computer.

  Really I'd only rec the National Geographic.

  by LAMaestra on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:01:04 AM PDT

•  Vanity Fair once in a while

  but mostly I read home and garden mags and those about restoring old houses. I have read these for about 30 years now.
  Architectural Digest is also a favorite, but I usually don't feel I should spend the money on it.

  by TeresaInPa on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:01:29 AM PDT

•  The Economist

  best magazine on earth.  

  by Jett on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:01:32 AM PDT

•  Any American Scholar readers out there?

  I also take The Atlantic and The New Yorker.

  Scholar 7, Atlantic 8, New Yorker 8.

  by ticket punch on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:01:43 AM PDT

•  I read

  Time, Newsweek, Smithsonian, the Atlantic and the New Yorker.  Pluses and minuses for all of them, of course, except Smithsonian and the New Yorker, which generally are always great.

  Alex
  Choose Our President 2008

  by ourprez08 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:03:47 AM PDT

  •  I guess I also

    have been reading Entertainment Weekly, Out and the Advocate.  And Southern Living.

    Alex
    Choose Our President 2008

    by ourprez08 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:07:55 AM PDT

•  Adbusters n/t

  by stuckinlodi on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:09:42 AM PDT

•  Ode, National Geographic, Science News

  those are the mainstream ones -

  also QST, Sky and Telescope, Wild Bird, Sierra, MacLife,
  local and state newsletters

  Oprah bought at the airport

  by RosyFinch on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:10:58 AM PDT

  •  We have many in common! n/t

    by oxley on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 03:08:36 PM PDT

•  I read...

  The Nation   5
  The Progressive 10
  Freedom From Religion Foundation   10
  Education Week   2
  Phi Delta Kappan  2
  Monthly Review  10
  Rethinking Schools   5
  Counterpunch   10
  Harper's    5
  National Geographic   1

  by formernadervoter on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:12:48 AM PDT

•  The magazines

  I've subscribed to the longest are The New Yorker and The Nation.  I've been reading them in the bathtub for years!

  Another magazine I really like is a Canadian mag called The Walrus.  I discovered it a couple years ago on a trip to BC, and I have been reading it ever since.  It's like the New Yorker, but in some ways it's better--more variety of stories, lots of fun facts, and since it's Canadian, it's nice to read things that don't have such a US focus!

  by mefpdx on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:13:18 AM PDT

•  Currently...

  ...I don't subscribe to any magazines, but I always read The Nation and Mother Jones when I have the chance. I used to read Ms. quite a bit, too.

  by metal prophet on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:14:26 AM PDT

•  The American Prospect

  is my nomination ... especially for its broad policy coverage of issues that are important to the Democratic agenda ... including union issues, health care, job creation, etc.

  by jfdunphy on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:15:33 AM PDT

•  When I was a kid...

  ....I got three magazines: Cricket, Penny Power/Zillions, and Odyssey. They were all important in developing me as a person, I think. Cricket gave me an appreciation for writing and literature. Penny Power/Zillions helped make me skeptical towards advertisers, hype, and big corporations. Odyssey helped build my interest in astronomy and other sciences, even though science was never much of a strong point for me, academically.

  by metal prophet on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:20:03 AM PDT

  •  Awww, Cricket!

    I used to get National Geographic World Mag, and something called Owl (which I think might have been Canadian).  Great stuff!

    by LAMaestra on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 02:13:38 PM PDT

•  Hmm

  Will admitting that I read Cosmo, Glamour, and Marie Claire every month make me seem like a bad liberal?  I can't help it, I like handbags and makeup.  And as I pointed out to my boyfriend, men benefit when I read Cosmo.  However, I also read Time, Newsweek, and the Economist.

  Funny story...I was standing in line at a bookstore in the airport, buying some magazines for the plane.  The man behind me noticed a fashion mag at the top of my stack, and made some sarcastic remark like "That's some serious reading you've got there."  I pulled The Economist from the bottom of my stack and replied "Yeah, you're right."

  by GoldnI on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:21:28 AM PDT

•  FUNNY TIMES, Harper's, The Atlantic, . . .

  New Yorker, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, Foreign Policy, Political Science Quarterly, Wine Spectator, Cook's Illustrated, Sports Illustrated, Horticulture, National Geographic.

  by sxwarren on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:21:42 AM PDT

  •  Oh, yeah. Probably average about '7' for all.

    Meaning that sometimes I won't finish one issue until the next one arrives and much of the time one article may never get read.

    However, every word/image in FUNNY TIMES gets ingested within the first 24 hours.

    by sxwarren on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:26:40 AM PDT

•  indie magazines

  Colorlines, Bitch, Clamor before they went bankrupt, (tear) Kitchen Sink, Fifth Estate, Tint, etc.

  by righteousbabe on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:27:07 AM PDT

  •  p.s.

    don't forget local publications and zines!

    by righteousbabe on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:28:43 AM PDT

•  My favorite?

  Sojourner's. Jim Wallis does a great job. Sure a lot better than US News & World DISTORT! LOL

  by KnowVox on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 11:49:18 AM PDT

•  New Yorker & sometimes Vanity Fair n/t

  by pacplate on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:19:03 PM PDT

•  95% the Internet tubes

  I have a sub to the Smithsonian given as a gift.  I might get another one to Wired.  I used to subscribe to both Analog and Asimov's.

  Online there is Salon.com and Mother Jones and The Nation and TAP and others of a progressive lean.  Sojourners online rarely.

  by eleming on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:19:29 PM PDT

  •  TAP and The Nation

    are the best progressive news and policies ones if you want something when you can't get online.  I might get the Texas Observer now that I am thinking of it, in memory of Molly Ivins. All though I think giving to a local Democratic club might be a better us of the money for making a difference.

    by eleming on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:30:28 PM PDT

•  My magazines

  Salon
  The American Prospect
  The New Republic
  Washington Monthly
  Slate

  These are the ones I read on a regular basis.

  by v2aggie2 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:22:38 PM PDT

•  don't necessarily

  always get all the way through each and every one, but...

  In These Times
  Ms. Magazine
  Yes!
  Orion (just started this one)

  by mlsa70 on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:36:29 PM PDT

•  too friggin' many...

  here goes -

  -Harper's (my favorite, juuuust picked up the March '07 issue at a 'Hudson News' at NYC Penn Station on the way home...)
  -Men's Health
  -Esquire
  -GQ
  -The Washington Monthly
  -The New Yorker
  -The Atlantic
  -The Believer (An excellent one I haven't seen mentioned yet)
  -Remix Mag
  -Electronic Musician

  on and on it goes....

  by Hardhat Democrat on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 12:58:18 PM PDT

•  I am a big magazine fan

  I read

  outside
  running world
  mother jones
  american scientist
  popular science
  mother jones

  by Doughnutman on Sun Feb 25, 2007 at 01:43:39 PM PDT

•  Heres my list

  Washington Monthly
  The Progressive
  The Nation
  High Times

  by Love in 2024 on Mon Feb 26, 2007 at 10:18:46 AM PDT