How Many Is Too Many?
I have come to the realization that I have an obnoxious amount of magazine subscriptions. This mainly came about because I have a weakness for free gifts. Specifically bags.
But the time has come to reassess. So I am going over how and why I acquired each magazine to see if it is worth renewal.
Marie Claire was my first subscription. I was in a drug store two years ago getting a birthday card or something equally selfless I am sure and I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover. I was very into Buffy at the time, I believe we were in the final season. For the first time in a long time I had a steady paycheck and I thought, "why not?" So I bought the magazine. Loved the SMG article and decided, why shouldn't I have a monthly subscription? They have this deal going on....
Since then I've been less than impressed with most of the Marie Claire content. There are one or two decent articles, but everything else is fluff.
I was working in an advertising agency and when sorting the mail I would pull out the magazines that I thought looked interesting and ask the addressee if I could have them. 99% of the time they said yes, being inundated with free magazines. This is how I came to read and love Jane. One of the inserts had an offer for a free messenger bag with my subscription. Even BETTER!! So I subscribed.
I still love Jane. I think it needs to stick around.
From here on out things begin to get a little blurry, but I believe that Premiere was my next aquisition. I think they solicited me via the mail. Offering something ridiculous like $5 for a two year subscription. "What's five dollars?" I thought. "I drop that on a pint of decent beer!" Also, I thought Premiere would be a good way for me to keep up with actorly things.
So far I haven't been dissapointed with it. I enjoy the reviews and the articles are good. They throw some current events in there too, which to be honest, I probably wouldn't bother to get such in depth coverage of otherwise.
Elle also sent me a little invitation via post. I don't think I had gathered at this point that the magazines saw me as an easy target. They too offered something ridiculous like $10 for two years and a free bag. I actually stared at the mail-in thing for a while with this one. "Do I REALLY need this? I already have Marie Claire and Jane...." I think what eventually happened was that someone else in the household made a ridiculously large purchase and I just dropped the damn thing in the mail. "What's ten more bucks?"
I have to say, I really like Elle. The articles are LOOOOOOOONG and random. They're perfect for the train or sunday afternoon in the sun with a mimosa. Not that I do that often or anything. I don't NEED it. I don't. But I really do like it.
Rolling Stone may have come before Elle, I'm not sure. I can blame Rolling Stone entirely on inebriation. I was getting my coat from the coat check after one of Jeremy's Double Door shows and the girl asked if I wanted to try some free copies of Rolling Stone. Well, of COURSE! Free? Sure!! I mean, I had to fill out all my credit card information in case I liked it and wanted to continue my subscription, but if that happened, they would only charge me ten dollars. What's ten dollars!?
In my defense, I actually did keep the little thing to send in and stop the subscription for a while. However, Jeremy likes Rolling Stone and was getting jealous of my vast influx of fluffy reading material. He only has a Food and Wine Subscription himself. So this (and Premiere) are magazines we can BOTH read. And that niether of us minds leaving out on the coffee table when friends come over.
W. This one I agonized over. See, the mail solicitation came with a picture of the GORGEOUS FAUX RED ALLIGATOR CLUTCH I would recieve with my subscription. I KNEW by now that I didn't need another magazine. I was having trouble getting through all the ones I had. But the clutch... It was so pretty.... And the subscription was only $10. I would probably spend $10 on the clutch anyway if I saw it in the store. So really... I'm just getting the magazines into the bargain.... I asked people what they thought, had they heard of the magazine, was it good? Wasn't the clutch cute? Should I? Shouldn't I?
Finally the only girl I met who had ever read the magazine said that it was good and the layouts were really awesome. So I caved.
I have to say... LOVE the clutch. The magazine? I've only found the time to go through it once. When I was on vacation with Julie and she was all about the Brad/Angelina photo shoot that you see advertised above.
Now I know I have a problem. Lucky I dismiss easy. Glamour was offering a bag that I did not find cute. Allure is still staring at me with a really awesome bag. But I will resist... I will resist....
Marie Claire is up for renewal. At least that's one I know I can get rid of....
