I Miss Magazines

 I'm reading Grant Wahl's posthumously published collection of his magazine writing, and I am reminiscing about how much I used to enjoy reading magazines. 

I grew up reading all sorts of magazines and newspapers. We subscribed to some, I read others at the library, and we were given old issues of magazines too. I remember enjoying Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, Sports Illustrated, Taste of Home, World, and Popular Mechanics. There was a monthly magazine that we got at church that I enjoyed. 

In college, I would take some evenings and grab a stack of magazines and journals in the college library and read for an hour or two at a time. I remember reading the TIME cover article about Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code book and movie and the society that features in the story. I was in the airport at the end of my senior of college on my way back to school

When we got married, we had subscriptions to Wired, ESPN the Magazine, Food Network, and Kiplinger. 

When I look at the rack of magazines at the library, it isn't the same. It's smaller than ever. The topics aren't the same, and the writing isn't as in-depth as magazine writing used to be. 

We still have a few magazines. We get Fine Gardening, Taste of Home, World Magazine Teen edition, and Better Homes & Gardening. I've picked up old copies of Family Handyman. The kids enjoy reading and rereading our magazines.

I imagine magazines won't ever totally go away, but magazine publishing also won't go back to the way things were. 

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