Forget Match.com or eHarmony.com. It’s time to create a new website to connect with a compatible mate. Forget those “walks on the beach.” Tell us what magazines you have in your bathroom (or by the bed). This could tell us more than your answers to a personality quiz.
This thought came about at the lunch table with my son and his employee. I mentioned that I tried to cut back on magazine subscriptions, but my mail box is still choked with them: Wired, Writers Digest, Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Prevention, First Line, The Florida Writer and NRA magazine, to name a few.
My son says, “Well, I have Playboy, Maxim and several biking magazines.” His employee named ESPN, some hockey magazine and another cycle magazine. I happen to know my other son reads Wired and NRA magazine because he takes mine. My daughter has her nose buried in one book after the other and I don’t think reads a lot of magazines. Her books run the gamut from action thrillers (her favorite) to literary books.
Reading choices don’t tell you everything. You still can’t know what wonderful fathers my sons are from their reading material, or what a strong, lovable person my daughter is, but you can certainly get an idea of interests they invest their time in.
Perhaps my view is skewered by the past. When I met my husband he worked as a librarian at the Navy base in our town. He read every history book he could get his hands on. In later years he added action thrillers, reading at least two novels a month. OK I do still have a stack of Playboys he saved over the years along with general aviation magazines–all telling something about his personality and experiences.
So, go to your online dating sites, if you must, but when you meet, ask him/her what they read. Of course, if they look twenty years older than their picture and four inches shorter or taller, ask to see the subscriptions.
lol! Good idea.
My current subscriptions are Yoga Journal, Fitness, Popular Photography, and National Geographic. Bet there are no surprises there.
No surprises for those who know you, but telling for those who don’t. Already they might surmise (correctly) you are a fit photographer who loves nature.
I stopped getting magazines years ago because I never get around to read them. However, my daughter has me subscribed to O magazine which I really don’t read or like when I do. I hope she doesn’t renew it. Waste of money. I do get a free Stanford Magazine that is part of my alumni membership package and I get Woman’s Day but I think that’s about to expire. That’s it. More than I need. More than I read.
I tried to cut off at least some of my magazines a few years ago, but the ones I get now are really reading I can’t get anywhere else. The trouble is finding time to read them before passing on to the kids. Sometimes they are ready to snatch right away.
My new Oxford American has a great article on Jocase Lake. My oldest son has talked about the history of that lake many times. Must give it to him–but not until I finish.This is what happens with my Southern regional magazines that mention places special to us and to Wired with new ideas for everyone. Maybe one day I’ll be able to whittle down my supply, but not yet. 
Excellent idea. I know somebody who’s back “on the market” after 20 years of marriage and she’s floundering. I think I’m going to send her a link to your blog.
Thanks for stopping by, Denise. I would love to hear a follow-up if your friend snoops around her dates’ magazine stack.
My subscriptions would be Vanity Fair, Smithsonian & Science magazine if we hadn’t cut back subscriptions. But I end up reading my daughter’s teen magazine cover to cover, too, something I’d never admit to a new date, probly
If there was a dating site like this I think it would be a lot more successful than that silly eHarmony stuff.
Can’t tell you how nice it is to have you back with the old gang.Hope we didn’t tear up your place too much while you were gone with our partying.
Next time you meet a guy, ask him what kind of magazines he reads. Let me know if my theory works.