I love magazines. There. I said it. With a capital < & 3. This is probably surprising for somebody that is notoriously glued to a computer screen and falls asleep within seconds of opening just about anything with pages in it. Maybe it’s out of frustration due to my inability to stay awake long enough to enjoy a book or because it takes too much effort to really get a good bite of any juicy knowledge from a book, but they’ve just never been my thing. I bet a lot of avid page-flippers would belittle my intellect for this, but I have a lot of reason to believe that’s uncalled for.
These days I really don’t believe the difference b/w books & magazines to be an affair of intellectual might or cerebral stamina. Recently it’s become more an issue of wanting to arouse the rest of my senses. You might very well criticize me for this but I kind of hate the fact that when I look at a book I don’t get excited by the idea that the value is all in the interpretation and visualization of the words. Instead I’m bothered that there just isn’t more effort into making that book attractive. Now more often than not it’s probably an issue of practicality or budget, but what happened to putting effort into quality binding, picking just the right font, or finding that paper that really complimented the subject-matter well?
What I like about magazines is that not only do I love the information I’m getting out of them, because it’s quick and to the point, which suits my lifestyle (and naturally regulated attention span) but also because the good ones look good, feel good, and smell good. It’s as if the craftsmanship that used to go into books is being injected into magazines now. When I say “look good” I mean the typeface is appropriate, the colors make sense, the layouts are well designed and it’s great to be able to grab information at varying levels of focus. When I say “feel good” I mean the paper literally feels good at my fingertips, and when I flip through the pages I actually want to preserve its structural integrity. When I say “smell good” I literally mean you can tell the paper selection was a priority – that smell helps give the magazine an identity.
Based on all of the above, I could almost make the claim that picking a magazine is like picking a partner. It’s very important that she have something to say and be able to keep my interest when she opens her mouth, but if she looks good, feels good, and smells good, then I’ve got the whole package. Some may call that greedy or ambitious, but I just call it knowing what you want.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and already love that you read this.
Cheers!
Edison
Some magazines that helped inspired this – Monocle, Antenna, Surfer’s Journal, Wired, Saveur, The Economist, Esquire, & The Standerd.
Tags: craftsmanship, Magazines, Reading, senses
I’d never thought I’d get so worked up over such a little thing as a magazine vs. book debate, but here I am formulating my argument for why I believe in the exact opposite of what you have written on the subject matter.
You said that magazines are far more superior as they are able to excite all of your senses at once with the bright colors, the texture, the aroma of the media as a whole. Well, I say that you’re missing the most important sense of all – imagination. It’s true that magazines have their benefits, as mentioned (e.g. quick and to the point, etc.). But then again, that’s also the major flaw. Everything that the magazine has to offer is laid there in front you in all of its glorious glossiness, and there’s no space for the imagination to wander.
On the contrary, a good book is like a long scenic drive or watching the sun slowing sink beneath the horizon; the dialogues and descriptions shift and transform into images in your mind, colored by your own experiences. These hues are more vivid than any color printer can reproduce. It’s always worth it no matter how much time it took to read, and you always have that moment or two at the end of inward contemplation, of how you can fit into the big picture. Picking a magazine may be like picking a partner, but reading a book is like catching a glimpse of yourself, of who you really are.
In any case, it’s a good thing you know what you want. However, what do you need?
Regards,
Anon