The state of my TBR pile is disastrous right now – it seems I can’t move without bumping into a pile of books, sitting on a book, tripping on certain special “floor editions”, pulling out clumps of them in order to get at the sun lotion or umbrella (depending on the weather) … I could go on and on but you get the drift. I’m pretty sure many of you live with much of the same, too.
But does anyone have trouble with their magazine TBR piles, too? Because those grow quickly around here. I hate recycling a magazine until I’ve read it, so I literally have issues of certain magazines that go back two, three, even ten years.
We subscribe to a lot of magazines, simply because it cuts down on our magazine impulse buying when we’re out and about, and it’s a whole lot cheaper to subscribe than it is to buy magazines by the issue.
I was taking stock of the magazines that come into our house – I swear, I don’t know how we ended up with so many subscriptions! Here they are:
Gourmet
Bon Appetit
Saveur
Cook’s Illustrated
Fine Cooking
Martha Stewart Living
(If you’re noticing a bit of a pattern here, yes, it’s true. Luckily these all actually get read, as cooking is my husband’s passion. When he’s done, he stacks them up for me, because I’m always insisting, “oh, wait, I want to read that issue!”. Really, though, it’s Saveur that’s dear to me. Great magazine.)
More
Elle Decor
Canadian House & Home
Style at Home
Canadian Gardening
Vanity Fair
O! The Oprah Magazine
In Style
Arts & Activities
Toronto Life
Toronto Fashion
LouLou
Elle Canada
Family Fun
Smithsonian
Discovery
National Geographic
Wait, it gets worse. Lately I’ve been having a little secret hankering for a subscription to Hello! Canada, which I stealthily read every time I’m at my stylist’s, waiting to get my hair done. I like it because the celebrities all seem so lovely, very lovely, darling! I like my stars with a dose of perfection, if you know what I mean.
But this past year, I actually decided not to renew some of my subscriptions. I think I deserve a pat on the back for that. So now, we no longer receive Real Simple and Wired. It’s like an addiction, you see – I’ve got to wean myself off a few at a time.
What about you? Do you get magazine overload at your house, too? Or are you great at resisting the temptation, either in the checkout line, or when that little white subscription postcard comes fluttering out?
Related posts:
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
We only have two subscriptions, a cooking one for me and a animal one for my daughter, but we get all the hand-me-downs from my mom and mother-in-law, so I always have a stack.
We quit subscribing to magazines when we realized we weren’t reading them.
Kathy’s last blog post..Review: Aleutian Sparrow
I let all my subscriptions lapse. The piles were getting huge and as soon as I started one another one arrived. It was almost like mental pressure knowing I should read them. Now, it feels like I taken a load off my shoulders. I used to get a lot of cooking magazines so now if I want a recipe I’ll browse the internet and save all that paper.
OMG – I think we are soul sisters!! ROFL! Seriously – I have the same problem – overflowing book piles and magazine piles. Here’s a list of some that I get – US Weekly, OK Magazine, Parents, Parenting, Romantic Times Book Reviews, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Science Illustrated, Cookie, Nintendo Power, The Iowan, Nascar Illustrated, Nylon, Rolling Stone, Interview, Reader’s Digest, Playschool Playroom, Nick, I just subscribed to The Strand Magazine, and there are even more, but I will stop here. My gosh, thankfully I am letting some expire. But will keep the kid’s magazines coming, as well as my review/lit magazines. Of course I have to have the celeb gossip ones too….. Oh boy, I wonder if there is a magazine addicts club?! lol
April’s last blog post..Author Guest Post – David Gruder, Ph.D.
We get a lot and do read every single one – Women’s Health, Health, GQ, Esquire, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, Real Simple, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart LIving, Martha Stewart Everyday Food, Bon Appetit, Redbook. I have to say Real Simple is one of my favorites. Why don’t you like it?
Carol, Kathy, Kaye – I wish I had your restraint. I find it terribly hard to let go of my subscriptions or even the stacks of unread magazines. I feel much the same about them as I do my TBR pile, like there’s something magic that I can unearth, once I give myself the chance.
April, we must be soul sisters! I see some in your list that I’d love – like Science Illustrated, Nick, Playschool Playroom and The Strand Magazine. Especially The Strand Magazine!
Brette, I want to do exactly what you do – read every single one. The reason I let go of my Real Simple subscription is a strange reason – it’s one of my favourite magazines. The cover always grabs me and I always think there’s stuff in there that will be so useful. So I ended up feeling extremely guilty over all the unread ones, especially since they are nice and thick and I like thick magazines. But I have been so tempted to buy issues from the newstand lately, I probably will end up re-subbing to Real Simple.
I only have one subscription – National Geographic – but my magazine TBR is still teetering. I read magazines really, really slowly, since I feel bad about taking time away from my book TBR to read something I won’t even count on my end-of-year reading list. I’ve had my subscription for about two years now, and I’ve only read about 1.5 issues. *hangs head in shame*
Wow, that’s a lot of magazines! I don’t read as many magazines as I used to; books have taken precedence. I miss my subscriptions to The Strand and Real Simple, though.
Ruth @ Bookish Ruth’s last blog post..Book Giveaway: The Enola Holmes Mysteries 1-3 by Nancy Springer
Wow! I don’t subscribe to any magazines. I move around too much for one thing, and I’d rather read my books for another. I suspect I’ll start subscribing again when I live somewhere more permanent, though.
Meghan’s last blog post..Review: Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
I have a lot of magazines (esp. food mags), but since I started blogging, I’ve pretty much stopped reading them. I keep thinking about letting the subscriptions expire.
Beth F’s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday (May 27)
I used to get – gosh, I don’t even know how many – a lot of magazines. About a year ago, I just canceled them all – harsh, I know, but seriously, I can get them from the library if I ever decide I actually want to read one. Otherwise, they were just piling up everywhere, and taking up space I could be stacking books in! =)
Elizabeth’s last blog post..Thursday Tunes
I really should cancel some of them, I think. It’s good to know so many of you have as many subscriptions as I do, and it’s inspiring to know, too, that so many of you have been able to kick the habit!