Source Immaterial

As we march towards 2012, I gave myself a few Christmas presents (solstice presents?) that will provide me with valuable fuel for my brain. I’ve always loved magazines, and I may have even bored you at some point (thought not on this blog) with a particularly fond childhood memory of mine in which I had just bought a computer magazine and was cooking chicken pot pies for myself (oddly, I don’t recall why my brothers or parents weren’t there) and I savored every word of the magazine (Amiga vs. Atari ST!) and every bite of the pot pies.

Anyway, the point is that I love magazines. These days I don’t get any of them in the mail though; my old school information source is delivered in a decidedly hi-tech way through my trusty iPad. Most come through an app called Zinio, though a couple are independent apps and one (the Brit mag Autosport) I download as a PDF and read in Goodreader. In every case, I get a nice little notification when a new issue has arrived (and I don’t have to worry about the postman taking his time). My current roster are old favorites like car magazine (Car & Driver, Automobile, Road & Track, Autoweek, Popular Mechanics) that are ridiculously cheap at less than $1 an issue, combined with a couple of new delights I picked up last year (NatGeo Traveler, RetroGamer). Now I’ve added a few new mags to the mix to expand my horizons a bit:

Dwell isn’t a magazine about wallowing in holiday loneliness (wouldn’t that be a big seller). Nope, it’s an architecture magazine. Its focus is on homes rather than large scale stuff (I might look for such a periodical at some point) and so far I really like it. I’ve always thought about designing and building my own home, and while I’m not sure whether that will ever happen or not, I’m sure to pick up a lot of ideas from this as I aspire to be Howard Roark.

Rhode Island Monthly is a way for me to get in touch with the state that has become my home (at least for this phase of my life). I don’t read the ProJo these days so RIM will have to keep me up to date with an admittedly light look into state issues and happenings. More importantly, it’s an inspiration for me to explore new places and restaurants.

Mental Floss is a very clever concept with sections devoted to right brain, left brain, and the type of little tidbits I find fascinating (did you know that treadmills were originally conceived as a was for prisoners to generate power to pump water or crush grain?). Seriously, this magazine is tailor-made for me – above the title of every issue is written “Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix.”

Home Theater. Okay, not exactly new territory for me here, but it was so cheap (40¢ an issue) I couldn’t resist. Since I haven’t read a magazine of this type in a couple of years, it was fun catching up on the state of the art (amazingly, the top TV of all time was from way back in early 2009, and has just now been barely surpassed). I won’t be making any purchases based on this (I’m quite happy with my current portable but impressive setup) but like with the car mags it’s an industry I find fascinating.

 

 

Advertisement