Death of Another Print Magazine

[anng]

Originally Posted by CJWrite

Wow... Newsweek!

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer real books and magazines made from real, tangible materials, not a digital jug-flop. I have a pretty decent sized home library in my office that I love to periodically rearrange and organize. (Sometimes, I even love to just sit there and look at it.

I'm sure Kindles and similar devices are convenient and more organized, but they just seem so "cold". I might not mind one to replace my random fiction paperbacks, but it could never replace my "classics" collection and non-fiction books.

I'm a bit of a magazine addict, especially the home improvement / design magazines, which I frequently mangle and cut apart to fill my build-my-house "scrapbook". I can't imagine having to access one of my favorite magazines only online. If that were the case, I think I'd end up simply switching to another more "traditional" print magazine.

Even though about all of my income comes primarily from online sources, it's instances like this that make me abhor the internet. Sometimes I miss the "good ol' days", when I actually had to flip through the pages of a dictionary or encyclopedia...

I'm with you on the "classics" or "favorites." I do reserve a bookshelf for books like Earth Abides. I've kept that book for more than 20 years, after loving the book so much my high school teacher told me to keep it at the end of senior year. I also have copies of Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, and King's The Stand. Those are the rare books I will read over and over again. Most of the books I won't part with are writing guides. Back when Writer's Digest had the book club, I'd sign up, get all the free books, meet the requirements, cancel, and then wait a short time before signing up again. Then I have a collection of autographed books that I keep.

I still love the feel/smell of paper, but when it comes to reading review books, I do find the Nook is much handier. I always leave to pick up my daughter so that I have 30 minutes to myself. I'll pull out the Nook at that point and start reading. If a book doesn't catch my interest, I can easily switch to something else, and I'm not carrying around 3-4 books in my purse like I used to.

I'm in the midst of writing a book though, and that's one spot where I differ from most. I am going to go the traditional route and shop the book around. As a Nook owner, I hate Kindle books. The format is not interchangeable with anything. With the Nook, ebooks are usually PDF files, but if an author contacts me and all they have is a Kindle version, I'm bound to my laptop to read it.

[LaurenBT]

This is a real shame. I think that today's generation depend way to much on technology. People can't do anything nowadays without their iPhone or smartphone in their hands.I'm fairly young myself (twenty-four years old) and I notice that the majority of my generation are lost without their phones, but I just don't get why.

I can see all magazines and newspapers going digital in the future. Nobody seems to write by hand any more either, so I predict that skills like being able to spell properly will be extinct, as everyone will just rely on the spellcheck on their phone or computer. I myself prefer real books and magazines, and while I write using my computer for work, I much prefer writing with pen and paper.

[anng]

Originally Posted by LaurenBT

as everyone will just rely on the spellcheck on their phone or computer.

This is so true. I'm much older than you, my son's only a few years younger than you are, and I'm shocked at the change between his elementary/middle school time and that of my daughter's who is only three years younger than he is.

She'd come home with 100's on papers that had glaring errors. I'd go nuts correcting her, her ending up in tears asking why it matters when the teacher said it was fine, and my arguing that the teachers in this case are idiotic. Far too many times, I'd see their/there/they're, its/it's, misspellings galore, and I'd go batty because those mistakes don't deserve an A+. So I asked a teacher and she told me that they're not supposed to grade for grammar and spelling anymore because the computers do it for them. The problem is, there is not perfect program out there.

My daughter learned that the hard way in one of the college level classes she's taking this year. She put it through Paper Rater, which is the program that her school recommends. The teacher sent it back with four errors that the program missed. Of course, the grade was still a 100%, but at least in the college-level classes I'm starting to see teachers who are finally pointing the errors out.

[LaurenBT]

It is such a shame that good spelling and grammar skills are no longer needed. When I was in school, the one thing I was excellent at was spelling. I was terrible at maths, but I was good at English. Now, it seems that the subject of the English language may become increasingly watered down.

[Bella Pearl]

These kinds of things are really sad. I love being able to touch the pages of a book or magazine. That's the way I grew up so that's what I prefer, even though I'm am online writer. Reading online just isn't the same to me, but it will soon be the only option.

[anng]

On another magazine-related note... I get Cooking Light, it's a magazine I've come to love, but they made a change recently that's driving me batty. Their editor now goes through the articles before the issue goes to print and highlights parts of articles with yellow highlighter. I try to read things, but that stupid highlighter pulls my attention just to those spots and I feel cheated. I know how to read and comprehend what I'm reading, I don't need a magazine editor highlighting the important points for me. I actually find myself trying to read the magazine now and get disgusted that they seem to think readers are stupid and need key information pointed out, so I've been tossing the magazine aside.