5 things I love about print magazines

1 The touchy-feeliness!

I think we all love something we can hold in our hands. It feels real in a way that something trapped behind a screen never can, with a front and a back; a beginning, middle and end. A real, tangible ‘thing’ with some weight behind it. 

2 The collectability

My grandfather collected every copy of National Geographic from 1936 until he died in 1983 (with the exception of a couple of copies that never made it to London during the blitz). My grandmother had walls of their slim, yellow spines in her home; a record not only of what has happened over that time but also of the way we’ve seen and so reported on our planet, people and wildlife. Never edited or re-nosed to fit contemporary nuances, they serve as a series of written time capsules. Ernest might not have had enough editions to warrant one of my grandmother’s bespoke pieces of cabinetry, but I get the same joy from seeing all those spines lined up, knowing just which landscape sliver to reach for when I want to revisit a half-forgotten factoid.   

3 The smell

We all crack open a new magazine and immediately give it a long, hard sniff, right? Right?

4 The screen break

When I was a kid, I witnessed the adult world through the actions of my mum and dad. Paying in a cheque? We go to the bank, speak to the cashier, and fiddle endlessly with those little biros on chains. To buy groceries, we wander around a supermarket with a trolley, picking out ripe bananas and perusing rows of cereal boxes. Choosing music to play, we scan rows of colourful CD cases, picking out an album, gazing at the artwork and reading the playlist. To my son, all of those activities (as well as work, shopping, and a good chunk of my ‘social’ life) just look like me, looking at my phone. It's kind of depressing, and I’m trying to claw back real and shared experiences. On our last holiday abroad, my seven-year-old and I spent swathes of time sitting in the sunshine, reading books together. Bliss! 

5 The longevity

Ever run an update and lost access to a favourite app? Ever had apple music helpfully update one of your favourite songs to an inferior mix? Ever saved all your old family photos to a DVD thinking you were future-proofing them, only to realise one day you don’t have a DVD drive anywhere in your house? It’s never going to happen to your bookshelf. And hurrah for that!