Junkie

I am a magazine junkie. I read dozens of magazines each month, some cover-to-cover, while others I mostly skim. I was going to walk around the house and try to figure out just how many different publications I receive each month, but I gave up before I even left my office.

Some I subscribe to; some I receive free because I'm in a particular profession, association, or religion; and some I receive because I wanted to use up accumulated frequent flyer miles before all the airlines went bankrupt. I wonder what my magazine choices say about me--and I'm certain someone studies things like this--and what conclusions someone who knows nothing about me beyond the publications I read would make about my socio-economic status.

What I find most interesting is that I don't subscribe to any fiction publications. (Although some of the publications I receive publish fiction, they are all primarily non-fiction publications.) I could make the excuse that I receive enough contributor copies that I don't need to subscribe to fiction publications in order to keep a finger on the pulse of short fiction markets. But that's just an excuse. The fact is, I enjoy reading non-fiction, especially well-written non-fiction such as that published in Smithsonian, and my compulsive reading of non-fiction constantly refills my storehouse of short story ideas.

But I'd probably be drowning in magazines even if I didn't write.