I'm wondering what everyone else reads? Personally I read Countryside (of course!!!). I also read BackwoodsHome and The Backwoodsman. I won't buy MEN or BackHome because they are nothing but fluff and teasing articles, absolutely none of what I call "meat and potatoes" articles. I will pick them up at the bookstore and thumb through them, hoping that they will eventually get their act together but alas they do not so I put them back on the store and save my money. It seems also that Popular Mechanics, Sports Afield and others no longer have really good informative articles, just fluff. I'm borderline on BackwoodsHome. Quite often I will pickup a copy of Backpacker magazine.

By the way, I've had some good luck browing the clearance tables at Borders, Barnes and Nobles, etc. Never can tell what one may find.

Thanks, be well and have a great day.

gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), September 25, 2001

Answers

I read Rural Delivery and borrow Terri's Countrysides until I can get a subscription of my own. Sooooon...soooon..:o)

-- Alison in NS (aproteau@istar.ca), September 25, 2001.

Was receiving Mother Earth but will not re-new my subscription because there is little or nothing that is of interest to me. Seems to be the same old thing but nothing new. Was getting a gift subscription to Organic Gardening but didn't even recognize it from what it used to be. I did recently subscribe to BackwoodsHome after finding it on the web but the jury is still out on that one. I will probably not re-new. For me, my all-time favorite is definitely Countryside. WOuldn't want to be without it.

DH gets Time and Yankee Magazines and I at least thumb through them.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (aka Dianne in Mass) (Trevilians@mediaone.net), September 25, 2001.

Darn gene, you must be my twin. I subscribe to Countryside, Backwoods Home and The Backwoodsman (love their low tech stuff!). Backpacker and Outside sometimes get my attention, but I look at the index before purchasing; half of the magazines have some kind of super model with white teeth, clean clothes and modeled hair pictured in the middle of nowhere. Get real.

I keep all my back issues of the magazines, so that a library gets built pretty quickly, although wife is looking at me sideways (why do you want to keep this after you read it already?).

Other than that, Backwoods Home Anthologies take a lot of my time; most of the articles, little advertisements (how many times can you see a composting toilet advertisement?).

Other than that, my three year old son gets most of my attention these days. Have a good day.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), September 25, 2001.

I just got my first copy of Countryside and really like it. I also get Mother Earth News but don't like it as much as Countryside.

That's all I subscribe to just now.

Anita

-- anita (anitaholton@mindspring.com), September 25, 2001.

Sounds like everyone here is talking about magazines. Well, for those, we both read Countryside; my husband reads more of Small Farm Today than I do; I read Handwoven, as it pertains to my craft; and we both read National Geographic, as it still does a good job of informing us of the world outside of our homestead. Started reading that one as a child at my grandparents and still love it. As for other reading material, I read a lot of books on women's lives and issues and the lives of Native American Indians. My husband likes to read outdoor, adventure and spy type stories. We both like the series by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear "People of the Mists", "People of the Masks", etc... We've found a great place to mail order books at bargain prices. It's Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller, Falls Village, CT 06031-5000. Sorry, no 800 number for them, just write and they'll put you on their mailing list. They may have a website, not sure. Good topic with the cold weather coming on!

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

Countryside for me, and Country Woman for my wife. She likes all the craft ideals.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 25, 2001.

I've pared down to just Countryside. I received Mother Earth News for years and still have most of them but don't care for the changes.

-- Grannytoo (jacres40@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.

I just want to thank all the folks who mentioned the book "Earth Abides" by George Stewart on prior reading posts. I finally got a copy and read it. Wow. Definitely a keeper. I know why it is still in print from 1949. It is a timeless tale of man facing destruction-an end of the world kind of story, deceptively simple. I can't help but rethink some of my opinions re: recent terrorist acts when I consider the Charlie chapter.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), September 25, 2001.

I read Countryside, Small Farmer's Journal, Rural Heritage. Still have a subscription to TMEN, but like others, don't find it as good as it used to be. Small Farmer's Journal and Rural Heritage are both publications geared toward farming with animal traction, mostly horses. Rural Heritage has articles on using oxen also. SFJ also has lots of good articles on other aspects of farming and crops. As far as books, my tastes are pretty eclectic, going from classics to sci- fi to Stephen King to the occasional trashy romance novel, just depends on the mood I'm in.

-- Deb Foster (DFoster987@aol.com), September 25, 2001.

I only get Countryside now. Dropped MEN and Organic Gardening when they became yuppitized. Dropped Backwoods Home cause the focus seemed very narrow minded and too many venders touting their wears as feature articles. Also subscribed to Small Farm, but I just didn't feel like it was a good value. Rog

-- Rog (rw285@isoc.net), September 25, 2001.

Hi! I have been a COUNTRYSIDE reader for about 8 years and a subscriber for about 4. And I keep ALL of the mags and reread them and reread them! I have also subscribed to BACKWOODS HOME almost since the first and have their first seven anthologies. I also get COUNTRY WOMAN and FARM AND RANCH. I read read read, especially at night!

I also read every newspaper that I can get my hands on since I have been a reporter for more than 21 years!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

COUNTRYSIDE is my one and only. Am subscribed for 5 more years. Once subscribed to BACKWOODS HOME but did not renew. Will look through it at the bookstore, along with BACK HOME and THE BACKWOODSMAN. I, too, am always searching for low-tech ideas. I have been buying HOME POWER and will probably subscribe someday. I look through SOLAR TODAY and occasionally purchase a copy but will definitely not subscribe. Our library gets MEN so I go through it there. I do, however, own issues #1 through about 134 that I will not part with. I have over 11 years plus of back issues of COUNTRYSIDE and go through them all every winter. Yahoo!!

-- Sandy Davis (smd2@netzero.net), September 25, 2001.

We subscribe to Countryside and just renewed. Have gotten Country Woman, Mother Earth News and OG but have/am letting them lapse as we didn't feel that they had that much useful information in them. We also thought a lot was a repeat of what was found in Countryside.

As for books we read them all but we especially enjoy hunting through used book stores/anitique stores for old farming/agriculture etc books.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), September 25, 2001.

Wow Sandy lucky you.

The first years of Mother Earth News, then published by John Shuttleworth, are definitely keepers. No glitz, no glamour, hard core homesteading information that was informational. I was able to get about 15 to 16 of the old MEN in a used book store; the difference in the magazine content between then and now is remarkable. That is why I started reading Countryside a few years ago; it seems to me to be the closest to the old MEN.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), September 25, 2001.

Our longtime subscriptions include Yankee, Nat. Geographic, Cross Stitch, Downeast and...of course...Countryside! We've subscribed to CS since 1977 and I have all but two issues. I'm the book reader in the family and will read a little of everything, but mostly sci-fi and horror. I belong to the Stephen King book club and automatically get his new releases in hardcover.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 25, 2001.

Seems like a timely place to remind people to exercise their freedom to read during Banned Books Week Sept. 22-29. Classics such as "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", "Of Mice and Men" and "The Catcher in the Rye" are in danger of being permanently checked out of libraries. Please visit www.ala.org/bbooks (American Library Association, features resource guide and a list of frequently challenged and banned books). In a lot of places in the world, books are censored and people are persecuted for what they read.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), September 25, 2001.

I subscribe to Countryside and Backwoods Home magazines, and alot of times buy Country woman. I also like to read Spin-off and Hanwoven, and plan to subscibe to some sheep related magazines soon. I read alot of how to stuff....and love my collection of the backwoods home anthologies. I don't get MEN anymore either...but did for years. And same with Organic gardening. Shame they changed so much!! Sounds like we are all reading pretty much the same stuff. I like a good novel now and then too, but mostly have time for that in the winter. I guess I need to start thinking about that soon. I have been sort of into the sheep stuff the last couple months.

-- Jenny Pipes (Auntjenny6@aol.com), September 25, 2001.

Though we were the original MEN folks back in the late 70's, we were long time subscribers/ad in breeders directory, to Countryside. And as of today we are back. Missed running my ad and all the new countrysiders I met that way, wanting family milkers. And how weird is this. Husband and I were just talking that we missed getting it, and today in the mail is a renewal with a renewal for my old goat ad! And we have been away at least a year.... O.k. we won't start a whole nother thread, but that is exactly how God works in my life. :)

I read Dairy Goat Journal, Caprine Supply and Martha Stewart, with the computer, we no longer get near the mags we used to. Husband and I are both avid book readers though. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.

TMEN was a recent experiment, with visions of what it once was. No longer. I find the "news" magazines (ie. Time) to be the mouthpieces of the liberal press. I am paring down to Countryside, Reader's Digest, Fur Fish & Game, and The Shotgun News. Those are the ones I actually read, cover to cover, and often in a day or so of their arrival. I have a finite amount of time, and while others seem tempting, they usually languish unread. GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), September 25, 2001.

We're magazine junkies - both of us read a ton, and keep up a large number (probably more than we need) of subscriptions. Countryside, obviously, and BackHome (got it for free with some work-related frequent flier miles - I won't renew). Backwoods Home - I love the canning stuff, the rest is too right-wing for me, so we don't bother, although I do read my sister's (also too right wing for me ;-). MEN - a waste, wouldn't subscribe on a bet. I desperately miss Kitchen Garden magazine - it was by far my favorite gardening periodical. We get Archaeology, Harpers, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Sky and Telescope (hubby is a professional astronomer), Scientific American, PMLA, Studies in English Literature, Shakespeare Quarterly (my field), Natural Jewish Parenting, Mothering, Earth Island Journal, Natural History, Tikkun, World Press Review, Foreign Affairs, Vegetarian Times, Saveur, Cooks Illustrated, Art History, Writers, and Popular Mechanics. We read Home Power and Solar Today, but haven't yet subscribed.

About half of them we get free by using up miles/credit card rewards. We also get a few that I receive only because if I didn't use up the miles somehow, we'd lose them - Redbook, Country Woman, Working Mother, Parents, Commentary and Organic Style. I'll read anything if someone sends it to me free, and afterwards, I donate them to my library. But I'd *never* pay for them.

-- Sharon in NY (astyk@brandeis.edu), September 25, 2001.

Farm And Ranch is an excellent magazine...no ads! Countryside is even better but it doesn't come often enough!:)

-- Rebekah (rebekah_swinden@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001.

I read Countryside (cover to cover), I used to subscribe to Backwoods Home (actually for several years), but it seemed more and more to be pushing politics instead of backwoods living (although I think their anthologies are good--I have them all). I also enjoy historical (the pioneer period) Christian romance novels, and my all time fav is the Bible.

-- Sharon (spangenberg@hovac.com), September 26, 2001.

There is a magizine called "Ag ventures" that I have seen no attention given to, it seems to be an adertisement for the rich, but there is articles about other types of income available.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), September 26, 2001.

Anne - Since you enjoyed "Earth Abides" (one of my all-time favorites), you would probably like anything by Neville Shute. He wrote "On The Beach", "A Town Like Alice", "Trustee From The Tool Room" and many other good ones.

For laughing-out-loud reading, nothing beats Pat McManus. Country humor at its best.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), September 30, 2001.

Magazines, hard copy: Countryside ( I am going to bronze every issue one of these days...!) and Better Homes and Gardens (b/c it was the cheapest that I could get by with for a subscription when my next- door neighbor's granddaughter came by soliciting for a school fund raiser....I HATE that, but anyway...)

I subscribe to 2 hard copy newspapers and read all other periodicals online. I used to subscribe to at least 12 hard copy magazines. (Hey, I just ran across an article that Jd wrote in one of my old Harrowsmiths in, what....1987? Seeds for that upcoming spring?)

Books, well, that's at least another thread. We have lots of wonderful used book stores within an hour's drive from here. I love to get homesteading books! I read them and re-read them and re-read them, and well, you know....

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), September 30, 2001.