Friday, September 19, 2008
Magazine Reviews
One amusing benefit of our being considered a "publication" is that books and magazines come to 201k for free, presumably for review and/or promotion. Political books, all sorts of magazines, etc.
We're been getting Rolling Stone for a while, and never ordered it. Before that we were getting something called "Complex," we'd never ordered. Ditto "American Prospect."
Now we're getting something called "Nextbook Reader," aka "A new read on Jewish culture." It's interesting enough, though no one here is Jewish (or any other religion, for that matter.)
So here, for those pubishers who may be reading, is a brief review:
Rolling Stone: Haven't read it. Mrs. 201k does, but never mentions anything that's in it. One odd interaction was that the one with Robert Downey Jr. on the cover was in the bathroom magazine rack for a while, which meant that for weeks this Editor found himself looking at Downey while peeing, which was weird. Eventually we flipped the magazine around backwards.
American Prospect: Not bad, except for the articles from Robert Reich, whose unfailing ability to be wrong about nearly everything never ceases to amaze us. Also a problem was that it appeard to be copy-edited by a nine-year-old.
Complex: Almost interesting, due to the neat idea of each issue being two in one, back-to-back (each cover is a "front" cover, flipped 180¼, and the two issues meet in the middle.) Two things kept us from reading past the first issue: 1. it's clearly aimed at a younger, more "urban," audience (code word alert!) which means it consists entirely of pictures of actresses we've never heard of and ads for clothing items we'd never buy, and 2. it always has a cologne-doused insert in it that stinks.
Nextbook Reader: Man, this is some dry stuff. Many of the articles look very interesting, in an "improve your mind, learn some history and culture," sort of way. However, we sheepishly admit that our repeated attempts to finish one of the articles (or even get to the third paragraph) have all so far failed, as our attention always flits to "The Baseball Fan's Companion," (now blocking Robert Downey Jr's. face) and the eternal mystery of why Eddie Taylor didn't also tag Chick Fewster.
And that concludes our magazine reviews for the foreseeable future. When and if we ever read any of the many political books that show up here we'll post similiarly thoughtful reviews of those as well. So you've been warned.
We're been getting Rolling Stone for a while, and never ordered it. Before that we were getting something called "Complex," we'd never ordered. Ditto "American Prospect."
Now we're getting something called "Nextbook Reader," aka "A new read on Jewish culture." It's interesting enough, though no one here is Jewish (or any other religion, for that matter.)
So here, for those pubishers who may be reading, is a brief review:
Rolling Stone: Haven't read it. Mrs. 201k does, but never mentions anything that's in it. One odd interaction was that the one with Robert Downey Jr. on the cover was in the bathroom magazine rack for a while, which meant that for weeks this Editor found himself looking at Downey while peeing, which was weird. Eventually we flipped the magazine around backwards.
American Prospect: Not bad, except for the articles from Robert Reich, whose unfailing ability to be wrong about nearly everything never ceases to amaze us. Also a problem was that it appeard to be copy-edited by a nine-year-old.
Complex: Almost interesting, due to the neat idea of each issue being two in one, back-to-back (each cover is a "front" cover, flipped 180¼, and the two issues meet in the middle.) Two things kept us from reading past the first issue: 1. it's clearly aimed at a younger, more "urban," audience (code word alert!) which means it consists entirely of pictures of actresses we've never heard of and ads for clothing items we'd never buy, and 2. it always has a cologne-doused insert in it that stinks.
Nextbook Reader: Man, this is some dry stuff. Many of the articles look very interesting, in an "improve your mind, learn some history and culture," sort of way. However, we sheepishly admit that our repeated attempts to finish one of the articles (or even get to the third paragraph) have all so far failed, as our attention always flits to "The Baseball Fan's Companion," (now blocking Robert Downey Jr's. face) and the eternal mystery of why Eddie Taylor didn't also tag Chick Fewster.
And that concludes our magazine reviews for the foreseeable future. When and if we ever read any of the many political books that show up here we'll post similiarly thoughtful reviews of those as well. So you've been warned.
