It’s not this bad.
I haven’t subscribed to “The New Yorker” for a year now.
It’s not that bad.
But maybe it’s close.
63 magazines.
When I actually started reading them at the beginning of June, I was rightly chuffed.
Beginning with the most recent issues, I was reading backwards, and I read three the first week.
But I also resolved that when the new issues came in the post, I would move them to the top of the stack.
(I can imagine the long-standing residents resented this resolution, but it was a gesture to current affairs.)
And, so, when the July/August issue of “The Walrus” arrived, later in June, I began reading that night.
Oh, I started slowly, finding Claudia Goodine’s “Ship Spotting” essay, about the increased oil tanker traffic on the Pacific coast fascinating and disturbing. (I spent a long time reading articles online about related issues.)
And that was a short essay. Whereas Sarah Milroy’s “The Hunter Artist”, about the new generation of Inuit artists who are working to preserve northern traditions even while adapting to southern ways of life, kept me occupied for two evenings.
Emily Landau’s essay on poet Pauline Johnson had me pulling Flint and Feather off the shelf and the Charlotte Gray biography.
And Matthew McKinnon’s “An Exile on Main Street” found me spending more time on K’naan videos on Youtube than I would have thought possible.
And all of that besides the real draw to the magazine for me, which is always the fiction.
(Have you seen their new limited edition Margaret Atwood book, free with a subscription?)
This issue’s summer reading includes Margaret Atwood, Joseph Boyden and Heather O’Neill, each revisiting the territory of a major work (The Robber Bride, Three Day Road, Lullabies for Little Criminals, respectively).
And, oh, a tasty Kate Beaton cover on this month’s issue, too, also available as a print.
So, here’s my problem. And it’s a delightful problem to have.
Because some of the magazines on my stack? I can read them in an hour.
“The Walrus”? It took me more than a week. That’s good reading.
And I’ll stop there. Because if I attempt the figuring involved to determine how many back issues of it I have overlooked in more hectic book-focussed months, how many are still lingering in amongst the tower, I might feel overwhelmed.
(As if the simple fact that there are still 57 magazines on the stack isn’t overwhelming enough.)
Whereas really what I’ve learned? They’re worth reading. I’ve been missing out.
I used to know this. But sometimes we need reminding, right?
What magazine is your current favourite?
I have a similar issue with magazines! I LOVE The Walrus, Bitch, and Toronto Life. Those I read as soon as they come… though sometimes I read only parts of them instead of the entire issue, mostly because yes – they all take so much time! Then I also get The Economist which comes weekly and is impossible to keep up with. I have a similar stack. It’s daunting!
Ah, Bitch is one of the reasons that I need to get this habit back in gear; my subscription lapsed and I’m not allowing myself to renew anything until I know for sure that I am going to read them, rather than have them turn into end tables over the course of a couple of months. (I like Bust too: do you ever read that one?) What amazes me about The Walrus is that even articles that I’m fairly sure I won’t enjoy (like the one I’m reading now, about Calgary, from the June issue) are so well-done that I wholly enjoy them. And some fundamentally change the way that I think about the world: it doesn’t get better than that feeling, does it?
It really doesn’t get any better than that 🙂
I used to read tons of magazines, GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Saturday Night,Outside- lately, all I can manage is The New Yorker and New York Review Of Books, and my pile is bigger than yours!!A kind customer gives them to me after she’s finished so they arrive, tens at a time- I got out of the habit, too little time, too many distractions, and they are pricey, but, I still love them, beautiful, glossy, informative and dreamy:-)
That’s it, exactly, BB: the question of habit. But I miss that habit. They are kinda dreamy, and I don’t have to be current with them to still enjoy that part. Good luck with your stack, whenever you get back to it; there’s probably tonnes of great stuff in there!
I confess I hadn’t actually heard of Mslexia but I just had a look and I think I might be tempted… Thanks! As for Granta, I did give it a try but never really got on with it – I think I’d really rather like a 50/50 mix of fiction and non, but there’s nothing much I can see in the UK. Now, The Walrus – that sounds good!
Mslexia is a treat, I think, though with its emphasis on writing, it’s not for every reader. There is also New Books Magazine and Slightly Foxed, for truly bookish material; I think they’re both UK based, aren’t they?
Kaggsy – Do you subscribe to Mslexia? There are some really fine short stories by women in there. But I’m not entirely sure if the rest of the magazine would suit. Would Granta be close to “The New Yorker”? It might actually be better…mostly fiction, and a little non-fiction, rather than the other way around!
Danielle – For a long time, that’s the way that I approached TNY too: just the short stories. Then I would flag particular essays. But, overall, I didn’t pay enough regular attention to it to justify another two years. Which isn’t to say that I’m not considering resubbing after I’ve caught up with my current stack. Have you thought about adding “The Paris Review” or “Tin House” or “World Literature Today”? (And you are not yammering: there’s no such thing as too much bookchat.)
Vasilly – You would love The Walrus. You should check out their current subscription offer for the Atwood volume.
M, now I want a subscription to The Walrus! I’ve never heard of the magazine before now.
Sorry–didn’t mean to yammer on there…you obviously caught my interest… 🙂
Oh wow, you have no idea how much better that photo makes me feel! After a long hiatus of not subscribing to anything (I used to subscribe to magazines and weaned myself off all of them except Time, then I stopped that, too–wait, I lie–my mom gave me a subscription to The Smithsonian), I’ve started up again. It was joining Postcrossing that did it, I think. It’s been so nice getting postcards in the mail that I’ve turned into a good mail junkie and want More! So I started with Mother Jones and then The Christian Science Monitor. Then I added (recently) The New Yorker and then Vanity Fair and the most recent is The New York Review of Books. If that’s not bad enough the issue of Vanity Fair that just came today had an insert for a cheap (see, that’s the hook–that initial cheap subscription) subscription offer to Vogue. Now when have I ever subscribed to Vogue? But only $12 to get a lovely magazine in my mailbox once a month. And it’s always good to know what the latest fashions are, right? And surely they have good articles in it as well? It’s a sickness–wave a subscription card in front of my face and I’ll cave in, I swear. I’ve never even heard of the Walrus (hmm, Canadian magazines, now there is a whole new swathe of magazines to consider…). Anyway, I’m happy because my pile is much smaller than the one in your photo. If I try hard now maybe I can get reading and catch up? I tell myself I at least need to read the short stories in the New Yorker before I recycle them… so far I’ve not recycled hardly any of my magazines because as much as I try and squeeze in reading articles here and there I am quickly falling behind….I’d be so well rounded if I could just keep up with reading all my magazines. Do tell, which ones do you subscribe to? And I might have to at least buy the summer reading issue of the Walrus…
I go through phases with magazines – last year my fave UK mag was Country Living, but I found after a few issues it got a bit dull despite the eye-candy. Same with craft magazines – Mollie Makes was good to start with but has gone downhill. I would like a decent UK mag like The New Yorker but I don’t think there is any equivalent. So I’m trying not to buy mags nowadays and concentrate on books instead!