Once upon a time, I was a real magazine junkie, buying 10-15 a month, off the rack no less. Now I’m down to three subscriptions, The New Yorker, Wired, and Harper’s Magazine. The New Yorker is the only must read and I’m barely keeping up with that. If it wasn’t for a free year tied to an Amazon purchase, I would have let my Wired sub expire in December. Frankly, I’ve come to almost detest the magazine. Overdesigned to a fault with too many pieces that border on sycophancy or smack of manufactured controversy. Despite the cost, I’m seriously considering replacing Wired with The Economist
I’ll always have a soft spot for Harper’s despite having zero time to read the magazine. Fabulous writing across a wide range of subjects: politics, literature, art, science, fiction. The quarterly folios are something to behold. An article on a lost shipment of rubber ducks is one of the greatest magazine pieces I’ve ever read.
Now the iconic Harper’s Index is online. Bravo!
I’m sure it’s been done somewhere else, but I have this nagging suspicion that a Web/blogosphere version of the index would do quite well. The tricky part is in the research and not getting sued by Harper’s.