Magazine Addict

I love magazines and they are probably my top guilty pleasure, on which I spend too much money and contribute to wasting paper. I am trying to use the internet as an alternative; after all, most magazines have a version of themselves online and there are so many other sites too that provide articles and pictures on the topics of my choice. There isn't a single magazine which covers all of my interests and so I buy several in order to do that, not reading every article in every publication since some do not interest me or suit me at all. I can buy magazines on art and painting, vegan topics and recipes, yoga and liberal politics/social justice articles. But what I enjoy most about magazines is a selection of variety, snippets of information about culture, fashion and home decor, mixed with serious articles on interesting topics, yoga postures, science based articles on health and food/recipes and of course I want it all tailored to me. I am not going to find it of course, which is why the internet is a better option.

Here is the magazine of my dreams. The fashion and beauty articles must be ecologically friendly, cruelty free and not involve unfair labour practices. My personal style fits a thrift-shop/bohemian/gypsy sort of esthetic which is all I want to see represented. I never wear a suit so I don't want to see fashion photos depicting them. I have an established style in home decor and gardening as well. I want images and articles on how to enhance my own style not how to decorate in white and chrome or some such cold and colourless style. Yoga poses, health information and vegan recipes, please. I am interested in artisans who make beautiful items, fiction and non-fiction books, independent films, and music and I don't want to know how to decorate tin cans to make pencil holders. I would love this to be a Canadian magazine, with Canadian sources and suppliers for products mentioned. It must be a monthly magazine because I cannot wait too long for the next issue. Real women, especially, but not exclusively, over forty should be the focus, including any models. Don't bother with a how to pick a bathing suit for your body article, it's been done a million times and I rarely wear one anyway. Once or twice a year the magazine should have travel features with beautiful photos.

If you are thinking that this magazine doesn't sound appealing to you at all and I'm ridiculous to be suggesting it, you are correct. That is why I am trying to redirect myself to the internet more often. The topics that suit my personal style are easy enough to find. But n a magazine I might turn the page and discover an article called What Your Cat is Saying when she Meows at You. Or How to Survive Your Teenager's Messy Bedroom. Those are the articles that you don't search for on the internet because you don't know that you want to read them until they are put in front of you. I just hate paying for a magazine where I don't want to read the articles selected for that volume, and yet, sitting on the couch, curled up with the cat and my laptop (which I'm doing right now) is not the same as curling up with a magazine, or the thrill of one I subscribe to arriving in the mail like an unexpected gift. It just isn't. And how do I find interesting articles if I don't know what I want to read? Oh, yes I'm whining. It is hard to let go of magazines but I see that the time is coming. I go to the library more often now and read them there. It still isn't my own couch with my own cat, but it slows down my purchasing of them.

So I will begin my exploration of magazines online and following blogs. I have already started with Style Gypsy. I have a voracious appetite for images and it just doesn't provide anything new often enough. I want what I want and I want it now, so I will have to create it for myself.