What words will Wednesday welcome? Rant or Rave?

How about a bit of both? Well, mostly rant I suppose… more fun, right? Tonight’s topic is the almighty magazine. These rags have their lovers, their haters, and in-betweeners. I think I fall under “in-betweener.” Some days I love to leaf through a glossy and look at pretty pictures, items, and far off locations.

Some days I see them for the absolute printed and reprinted then shuffled and reprinted drivel they can be. I suppose it depends, firstly, on which magazine we’re talking about. I’ve compiled a graph of “best to worst” of some magazines I frequently get from the local libraries:

Soooo obviously (I think?) Cosmo is at the bottom, and Psych today is near the top. But for a real no-holds barred breakdown, I’ll give individual titles their own rant or rave. Continue if you dare…

People: While I rave about the “star watch” pages which allow me to bypass other forms of news but still get my oscar gown fix, I must rant about pretty much every other thing in this turd of a magazine.

Good Housekeeping: I currently subscribe. Rave. While the celebrity articles are boring, I like the organization and cleaning tips, and… I actually like the clothing articles. Wow, when did I get “old?”

Utne Reader: Docked points for its gratuitous pandering to lefties (I’m not talking about handedness people), I do enjoy a lot of their articles, and the cartoon style covers.  Rave on, ravers!

Health, Shape, Self, Nat. Health, and similar: Kind of a toss-up, but rant wins because these are mags that I honestly feel rewrite the same 5 articles over and over each month with a different cheesy grin on the cover and expect us not to notice. Maybe in a waiting room.

Elle, Glamour, Vogue, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar: Rave for the pretty clothes and male model eye candy. Rant because they tend to make me sick with smell of perfume and I’d rather read a fabulous style blog any day!

Cosmo: I barely even have to make fun of this one, because many before me have already done so! Ten sexy bras! Ten sexy lipsticks your man will love! Make his head spin! Repeat! hahahahaha. It’d be a rave for sheer cheese factor if it weren’t so boring.

Psychology today: While it seems to contain little to no actual science, its a major guilty pleasure of mine. I love to read about the pseudo-meaningful studies. I love to see what’s on the current mental health buzzer. Self indulgent navel gazing at its best. Raaaaaaave!

Rolling Stone: Mixed emotions here. I find the majority of articles way way boring, but I do learn about a lot of my new music downloads from here.

Vegetarian Times: While I could have really used this at age seven, to have some semblance of an idea of what to request in place of chicken or lasagna at family dinner, I now find it strangely… one step behind. Hey VT- impress me and I will RAVE! Here we are now, entertain us…

I should note, in closing, that my low standards for mag reading (as sampled above) is explained partially by the fact that I don’t buy magazines save for Good Housekeeping, I just check them out from the library and occasionally read through them.

When traveling, however.. I will buy ANYTHING to pass the time.

What magazines do you read? Which ones can you absolutely not stand? Do you still read paper mags or do you look at them online?

Meri