ashleystar.

as some of you may know, my particular affinity towards printed reading material is a bit overkill. something i tend to feel guilty about sometimes only for the lack of time one has in a day, or lifetime, to spend delving into such lovely printed pages. i am the super subscriber of mcsweeny’s - meaning i spent close to 300 bucks this year to receive everything they have up and coming, from their quarterly DVD and journal editions, as well as their beloved believer magazine and of course, their book release club. as if those shipments weren’t enough, including the tenuous deliveries of the new yorker, atlantic and a slew of girly magazines, my obsession has reached further towards two additional paperbacks one quarterly, the other semi-monthly - the Tin House and Good Magazine.

there are reasons for such spontaneous subscriptions, those being mostly aesthetic since my inclination towards finely designed products have lead me, somewhat ignorantly, into something of an obsession, have i said that before? see second paragraph on my mcsweeny’s fan status. their most recent quarterly of 3 journals bundled into one large hardback by magnets. talk about cool.

the tin house appeals to me not only for it’s quality in writing, but also by its shear size in content, being somewhat book like, and paperback. there is something about thick-paged paperback books that make me nerdly delighted, in the most geeky of ways. the manner with which it weighs in your hands and the immensity of content waiting to set upon my eyes required an immediate subscription.

good magazine was referred to me from a link i found somewhere  that lead me to one of their articles siting the 51 best magazines. the approach to their content is again, aesthetically pleasing especially in terms of their web design. what prompted me to subscribe was not only a part of my normal routine obsession, but also due to the fact that the price to subscribe is donated to a cause of your choice! non-profits such as creative commons, UNICEF, world wildlife foundation and teach for america, to name a few, will receive 100% of the 20 bucks you subscribe. that i think, is pretty fucking cool. a double dose of gratification, printed material paid for the cause of creative commons (my personal choice).

you dig? donate and get, oh and did i mention tax deduction? m hmm.