Reading seems to be a close cousin to writing, and since fountain pens are the focus of this group...

I like magazines and am always on the lookout for interesting reads, with the little time I have. As an amateur photographer, I head right for the photo section and read only magazines that dedicated to the photo and photographer, magazines like Camera Arts, The The Photographer's Forum, Shots (comprised of BW photos sent in by readers), to name a few. PhotoLife out of Canada is the only one I read regularly that reviews equipment. I abhor huge sections of ads and those insipid 'how to' articles. This bi-monthly MapleLeaf rag is wonderful. Some articles in the current issue include a photographic look at the Chinese Opera, a photo article about the Floating Hospital of Bangladesh, and one about Sacred Places.

Along the non-photo vein, I have been known to pick up one that I find totally entertaining and filled with mindless but interesting articles is one called Mental Floss The current issue has a feature, The 20 Most Annoying People in History that looks promising because it includes Geraldo Rivera! Another one that occasionally appeals to me is Believe, an interesting collection of articles that usually includes an article of what Hornsby is reading these days (if you even care.) I can't find a link right now.

I'm curious what other members read. Maybe something you say will prompt me to try another magazine off the rack that I didn't know about.

Hi TL,

I must admit I always go for the computer magazines first, followed by checking for motor bike mags, next foto magazines, and finally the car ones.

Occasionally I check the home improvement, popular science and gardening ones as well.

Warm regards, Wim

Stylus, Forbes, The Atlantic, Clean Run (canine agility), Harvard Business Review, The Intellectual Activist (Objectivist review)

oh, and I'll pick up Scientific American when I'm in an airport traveling on business.

Good thread topic, Too-Loose!

I like reading The New Yorker, Sight and Sound (film magazine), The Economist as well as (you guessed it) Pen World and Stylus.

Here are mine: PWI, Stylus, Strad (string instrument), Wine Spectator, Pen Garden (a Chinese pen magazine published quoarterly, all modern, both in English and Chinese), National Geographic, New England Journal of Medicine, Consumer Report, Money, Kiplinger's

Occasional: Archeology, Military History Quarterly, Fine Scale Modeler, American Handgunner, Motor Trend, Computer Gaming World.

Kev

BBC Focus magazine (popular science), Q and Word (contemporary music and film) and too many PC magazines to actually count.

Ray

My original list was just a short list to get things started. Unfortunately...I am a magazine junkie and it wouldn't be so bad if I had more time to read.

Renaissance Magazine often has a few articles I find interesting and sometimes winds up in my mag pile. Too bad there isn't a Medieval World magazine because I actually find that time period fascinating.

I do buy quite a few music magazines regularly, as well as FP publications and political magazines, though I tend to run this in spurts, only reading them so long as my frustration membrane, the one that is intact to keep me from going completely bonkers, holds steady.

Giant Robot is a very cool publication about Asian-American pop culture and I will often find something I want to read in it.

However, of all the magazines to which I am drawn, I must say that it's the photo magazines I lust for the most, the ones I check for at the store week after week, check the online links to see if something new has been released. I keep an ongoing journal focusing mostly on my photography adventures, which is where fountain pens enter. (I've wondered...do I take photos just so I have an excuse to write with my FPs?)

Besides the pletora of professional periodicals, the only magazine I always read in National Geographic. It happens to be almost the only tv channel I watch.

NG fanatic here. cover to cover. used to get Discovery and Omni before it went away.

I read National Geographic and Scientific American at the docs office.

I need to check if my local library has a periodical loan program.

Hi,

I read Ranger Rick from the library ( actually my little brother borrows them, he loves animals )
and click.

Slush

OMNI went away

I remember buying the first issue to read back when I was 12.

K H

MacWorld and MacAddict magazines, Writer's Digest, whatever Family Circles are floating around the house, and the occasional Cosmo/Glamour/Marie Claire...

I'm a big geek.

While out and about today, I picked up the latest edition of Renaissance, which I had listed as one of my occasional reads. This issue (#45) had an article, "The Making of the Medieval Manuscript." It was pretty okay, but general in information. It discussed the process of making a book, including the types of inks used. The original and early ink used was a mixture of lamp soot with an adhesive thickener made from the Egyptian Acadia tree. However, it smudged easily and was replaced with a blacker in made from a brewing of "oak apples" or a substance made by wasps as a protective coating for their eggs. The dried gall was collected and crushed and mixed with ferrous sulfate (made with sulphuric acid poured over iron), and then mixed with the gum.

Yummy.

For pens, it was the quill.

I tend to get Practical Photography and I'll admit that there's good and bad within its covers, I tend not to be a fan of excessive photoshopping. They showed one photo once and then gave details of how it was taken. It was a photo of Picadilly Circus, ojnly it wasn't, it had been created from layers using 29 different photos to ensure that each area of the photo was perfectly exposed!

I used to always buy a motorsport magazine, but increasingly publications like Autosport seem to be forgetting that there is life beyond the international series like Formula One. It's a shame that Ingear Motorsport magazine didn't survive because that was fantastic for details of the Club scene.

The other magazine I subscribe to is British Archaeology, and I'll read the work's copy of the Museums Journal.

Too-loose, sounds like an interesting article that you describe.

I agree, and that is one of the reasons I avoid those publications. Another is they often stiffle creativity by promoting certain 'principles' of good photographs. I used to display my photos in a public forum where everyone can critique submitted work and it was amazing how the critiques followed formula answers...using the rule of thirds, B&W for 'art' photos, focus, etc. Some photographers get way caught up in the technical and overlook the creative element of photography.

----

Yes, it was an interesting article about book making.

Thanks