Magazines worth owning

Most magazines out there are nothing but filler fluff excuses for full page ads. What magazines are worth their salt? Journals, quarterlies, etc. What do you subscribe to and keep on the shelf ?

• I stopped all magazine subscriptions about two years ago.

• The French gay magazine "Têtu". It is currently the only good gay magazine in existence.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Têtu

• Mother Jones

  1974

• OP, you sound 100 years old.

• The New Yorker

  Don%27t%20be%20such%20a%20smart-ass%20r4

• Harper's GRANTA London Review of Books

• Cat Fancy

• Fisting Times

• Buzz Cuts And Flannel.

• Inches (for the articles!)

• Platt's Oilgrams

• Country Life (not just for the property porn; it proves oddly useful time and again)

• Still only one guinea.

  http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lkhcplPSui1qabk52o1_400.jpg

• American Prospect -- 
Biweekly liberal magazine of politics, policy and culture. prospect.org

• Latin Inches.

• [quote]Latin Inches. Hey, don't they use the metric system?

• To r6, I would add: Lapham's Quarterly The Nation Communication Arts Harvard Business Review BOMB

  Bengali in Platforms

• Italian Vogue

• Hot Lips® Magazine Loader

  http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/largeImagePopup.jsp?productId=704492

• Lickity Split

• Another vote for Country Life. It was always in the home of my anglophilic grandparents, so it makes me feel secure and nostalgic. The architecture articles are wonderful and like r12 says, it can be very useful if you're into cooking or gardening. Just love it.

• What R2 said. The others are obviously good (everyone knows about The Nation and The New Yorker), or clearly jokes.

• In These Times

• Harpers. Easily the best.

• National Geographic

• US. It keeps me so current on everything in the world and doesn't have too many words!

  America

• R26 = Nick Gruber

• MAD Magazine

• My 8-yr old daughter subscribes to three magazines - Skateboader, J-14 (a pop mag like Tiger Beat) and Mad (which she doesn't completely understand yet!)

• Saveur.

• I subscribeto Vanity Fair. I love looking at the ads, like some of the articles, too.

  eyeballer

• Soap Opera Weekly!

  Cheryl

• I miss Dominic D.'s scathing articles in VF.

• New Yorker has sucked since 1970s Okay, the comics are cute New York has semi sucked since Maura Jacobson retired doing crossword Country Life is fabulous. I miss Connoisseur, that was a good rag.

• VANITY FAIR is terrible. I subscribed for years. I pick it up about once a year and am inevitably disappointed. Most of the respectable titles mentioned here are just circling the drain, at least as far as their print editions are concerned. I think there is an audience for intelligent work online.

• Uncle Billy's Whiz-Bang! Pronouncing Gazetteer

• I enjoy McSweeney's and their spin-off Lucky Peach. Great writing. Something different every issue. Cook's Illustrated has Lots of good information to keep on the shelf. Bitch magazine has excellent writing (yes I'm a lesbian)

  OP

• I second Lapham's Quarterly. Each issue is devoted to one theme which it explores via mostly short essays by historic figures and extensive art work. No advertising. Brilliant but not inexpensive. Available by subscription or at bookstores. If it's for you, you'll know right away. Current Winter 2013 issue: "Intoxication"

• Scientific American Smithsonian

• R31 - Vanity Fair isn't what it used to be, but there are still 2 or 3 really interesting in-depth articles per month. That's what I get it for - no other magazines.

• r38 THANK YOU! I've never heard of that. It's great!

• Lapham's does look interesting - hmmm, may be worth $15 per issue.

• To my earlier "Country Life", two more: Monocle Garden & Gun

• Stump

• WEHT STROKE magazine? How I miss it.

• Tetu? Nope. One would like to hope, but it's just the usual fag's magazine with the usual limited range of interests. It's incredible to think that no one has produced any cultural gay magazine of the calibre of After Dark in 30 years. Hiss hiss hiss. The World Of Interiors. Unmissable. House & Garden (UK) Even allowing for some dating, I find 20 year old issues of this mag still compelling. I really miss the US version that Tina helmed for 5 minutes. Country Life: always something of interest. Vanity Fair, occasionally (has really gone off in recent years: Graydon's Camelot obsession is ridiculous, and the Hollywood issues have just been flogging a dead horse.) Vanity Fair, Spanish edition (sexier and often more interesting than US edition). Tatler UK occasionally. (Has had some great editors, including Tina, in the past. I recently visited a friend's country house that had wardrobes stuffed full of issues going back to the 1920s. HEAVEN.) Elle Decor US occasionally. Architectural Digest US, and German edition AD. Vogue Living, Belle (Australia) Paper Magazine. Has themed issues. Sometimes interesting. It's a Danish take on Interview magazine. Point de Vue: french mag that covers royal interests and houses. Great photos. US Vogue. (Needs to be checked for occasional great photography that sneaks past Anna.) Over-rated: Fantastic Man; Monocle (makes my eyes glaze: too much irrelevant information, poorly presented and curated.)

• I enjoy owning Vogue and several other magazines.

  Si%20Newhouse

• SASSY!

  Jane%20Pratt%2C%20still%20culturally%20relevant

• Forgot a couple. Veranda and Interiors: two wonderful shelter magazines with their own very distinctive look. For hilarity: The Best. A high glossy magazine profiling Monaco cafe society and rent-a-royals. There are even The Best Awards, which the mag features. For anger: Tatler, Hong Kong edition. Ever wondered about the end point of the world's disappearing rainforests? Clap your eyes on the over-oiled wives, sons and daughters of criminal Chinese and Malaysian lumber barons.

  R46

• Has anyone here checked out n+1?

• Any recs for arts and literature?

• OK, I'm treating this as a confessional. I'm embarrassed to say that I subscribe to ALL of these magazines: Consumer Reports Reader's Digest Good Housekeeping Family Circle Entertainment Weekly Time Cooks Illustrated Cook's Country Every Day with Rachael Ray Everyday Food (which just died; I understand I'll now be receiving Martha Stewart Living in its place) Bon Appetit Westways (the SoCal AAA magazine) Subscriptions are dirt cheap these days, and I guess I just like getting mail!

• Monocle Poets and Writers Entertainment Weekly Passport (its terrible but i am addicted)

• "Magazines worth owning" = 75 years old

• R46 is just wrong about Têtu. Perhaps he doesn't speak French well enough to get it.

  What%27s%20An%20%22After%20Dark%22%3F%20Is%20That%20Like%20%22Disco%20Duck%22%3F

• I love reading Vogue, because of the models, fashion and stuff.

  Straight%20Guy%2C%20but%20Narrow

• [quote]WEHT STROKE magazine? It ceased publication years ago. Probably the best XXX gay magazine ever published.

• [quote]MAD Magazine I second that!

• [quote]What's An "After Dark"? Hand in your gay card.

  http://guywoodhouse.tumblr.com/tagged/After-Dark-magazine

• Rolling Stone Saveur Guns&Ammo

  That%27s%20all.

• Some big corporations look only to break even with their magazines, and cover every topic known to man. They wind up profiting from renting out their mailing lists.

• Theatre Arts

  ElderGay

• For books: TLS, London Review of Books, NY Review of books The New Yorker for decor porn: The World of Interiors Cooks Illustrated

• Rolling Stone Details GQ

• At the risk of sounding like a frau, Real Simple magazine always has useful information.

• In addition to some already listed, like Lapham's, I'll add The American Scholar, and if you're from the South, Garden & Gun.

• Wallpaper Monocle

• I get two magazines. One is the American Radio Relay Leagues QST magazine. The other is Make Magazine.

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• I love Vanity Fair. It seems that each issue has several interesting stories that tone down the hoi polloi activities of NYC. Plus, every so often they have salacious stories involving famous people. Loved stories about Nan Kempner and the Eden Roc hotel and their famous clients. I loved VF so much, I paid $250 for a "lifetime" subscription in 1985. Three years ago, VF contacted me and requested I send a picture of my state ID to prove I am me. When I moved last year VF requested I prove I was me again. If you do the math vs. buying each issue retail, I really got the better deal. For me, VF has been free since 1992. I also subscribe to EW, if only for their book reviews.

  Eldergay

• [quote]hoi polloi activities of NYC Why do some DLers think "hoi polloi" refers to socialites and celebrities who attend exclusive parties, when in fact it means "the masses"? This is not the first time someone on this site has misused the term.

• The Sun Magazine. Nothing but personal writing and photos. Amazing stuff.

  http://thesunmagazine.org/

  Zak

• Bookmarks....great concise magazine of book reviews. Printed bi-monthy.

• I have every issue of Victoria magazine from 1990 to present. I had Seventeen mag from 1979 to 2001 but tossed them only to see they go for quite a bit on Ebay. I have several Fall issues of Vogue. Sold one on Ebay for $50.

• This thread has driven me to go back and look at my magazine collection. The early 1980s Architectural Digests are fascinating for featuring a few leather queen interiors straight out of Cruising - including CK's West Side apartment with leather hammock. Lordy!!! The Tatlers are great too. One has an article on 'It' Girls over the decades. There's an amazing Cecil Beaton colour photo from the 1960s I've never seen published elsewhere of a blazing blonde goddess captioned "Nico, the Marchioness of Londonderry", naked from the waist up with a mirror below, staring at the camera, her breasts concealed by a gigantic Victorian diamond stomacher she clasps in her hands. Hypnotic. At the other end of the spectrum there's a sobering pic of 30s beauty Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (features in Cole Porter's song 'You're The Top') sitting on her bed in a dingy nursing home after her money had run out.

• [quoteI get two magazines. One is the American Radio Relay Leagues QST magazine. The other is Make Magazine. Too much QRM here (M as in Mary, Mary.) Let's QSO on '40'. I'll QSL.

  QRP%20guy

• Butt, DNA and Tetu seem to be the only gay mags better in print than online. Attitude. Advocate and Gay Times are all shadows of their former selves.

• esquire is always good harper's new yorker rolling stone sometimes

  a.%20lesbian

• I just looked at Tetu on the mag stand again to confirm my previous impression. The main feature articles were 1. tattoos 2. summer shorts, and 3. moisturisers. Fuck a fuckin duck. Pardon me while I go back to The Economist.

• The Economist is conservative dreck. But yes, it is written in 6th grade English, so it could be more your speed, R78.

• I read a friend's "Birds & Blooms" magazine. I like in an apartment so I can't have a garden, but it's just a nice little magazine.

• "The Economist"? How vile. Did you vote for George W. Bush both times, or just the once, R78?

  Wow

• Like Der Spiegel, The Economist covers stuff you won't find elsewhere. It deserves its excellent reputation.

• No, "The Economist" is libertarian / conservative trash. Notice how you are the only one to mention on it on the thread so far.

• The Economist has seen a decline in their reputation over the past decade. They shot their wad with their strident neocon fellatio, and now many actively avoid them.

• [quote]No, "The Economist" is libertarian / conservative trash. Oh, I so wondered why I enjoy The Spectator. Ta for the perspective.

• Log Cabin, R85?