My love of... magazines

This is some of the 65 magazines I receive each month!

 

My name is Jackie and … I am a magazine addict.

Besides having a love for books, there is enough in my heart and apartment for magazines.

My goal is to read at least one book a month. The rest of the time is spent with magazines.

While some people glance at Facebook throughout the day, I can be found at either Magazines.com or Amazon looking for magazine subscriptions.

I love magazines. To those who know me, this is an understatement of the year.

It started when I was about nine, I would buy soap opera and wrestling magazines with my allowance.

I needed to know what was happening on the Young and the Restless and the Guiding Light while I was in school. As for wrestling, I had to make sure my grandma and I were prepared when we watched it on Saturday nights.

And each year, my grandmother would get the Publisher’s Clearinghouse thing in the mail and let me chose one magazine subscription for the year.

I remembered receiving Jane and feeling like a whole new world had opened up to me.

By college, I had a $100 a month magazine habit. Each week, I would bike over to the newsstand in downtown Rock Hill to browse through the thousands of magazines on display and talk to Mr. Jim. 

Each week, he would have a Sunday Las Vegas Review-Journal and a Sunday News and Observer waiting for me. Those weren’t cheap since they were out-of-state newspapers. The Vegas one was $7 and the  N&O was $5.
I was reading Mademoiselle, Glamour and Entertainment Weekly. I always excited to see who was on the cover. It’s not like now where you can see a preview before the magazine hits your mailbox. I love the surprise of it. Those were the days when I was young with no car payment and making good tips as a waitress. Life was good.

After college and getting married, my husband challenged me to find a way not to spend so much money on magazines.

So using my newly learned computer skills on Internet Explorer, I found message boards that offered great deals or free magazines.

Fast forward to 2016, I get 64 magazines a month. I know the mail carrier must hate me. My neighbor once told me that if it weren’t for me, the mailman would never stop at our address.

I pay for 13 of those 64 magazines. The rest are gifts from friends or they just simply start coming to my mailbox. I think I am on some magazine secret list.

Do I read all 64 a month? No! Some are just pass through magazines. They come to my house, I flipped through them and give them away to others. For instance, I get Autoweek. I have no idea why I get this magazine. It automatically goes to one of my coworkers.

But each week or month, there are certain ones I have to read. I have to read Entertainment Weekly because it covers books, TV, movies and other pop culture.

Other must-reads are Glamour, Essence, US Weekly, Variety, Ebony, Marie Claire, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. I feel reading those makes me a well-rounded person.

According to the Association of Magazine Media in 2015, the top 25 print magazines reach more adults and teens than the top 25-primetime TV programs. I can believe this.

Whenever I travel, there are certain libraries and thrift stories that sell current magazines for quarter a piece. It makes me happy to buy a Food Network Magazine for a quarter instead of almost $5. I’m happy and the library makes some money.

In addition to the angering the mail carrier, I have created an informal magazine group.

Basically, these magazines can’t stay with me so once I get them, read them or not read them, they have to go to another home. They are given to friends in Roanoke Rapids, Mount Olive, at the Duplin Times and various people and places.

My next trip to Roanoke Rapids will include about eight Food Lion reusable bags full of magazines to take to friends. My goal is to come home with an empty trunk and back seat. But I know others will give me more magazines, which will fill the trunk up.

I don’t want to be known as crazy magazine hoarder woman. I mean I love magazine a lot but I don’t hoard them. Okay maybe a little.
I have been told by many to get a Kindle or one of those tablets so I get my magazines there. 

No! I love holding an actual magazine in my hand. I love seeing the mailbox stuffed with them as I come home from work. It’s a great feeling.
Sitting on the porch in the rocking chair reading a magazine puts me in a happy place. Vive la print!

So again I am a magazine addict. I’ve been one for most of my life and it will probably continue to the end.

Do I want to do something about it? No not really but if you need some magazines, let me know. I can hook up you up.

DAILY DOSE

1. I took a new photo for my newspaper columns and it looks awesome!!!!

2. Wednesday is last day of work and then I go on vacation!

3. I get to see my son while on vacation!!