Lack of reading inspiration

I'm not sure I've ever gone a full two weeks without a post. But the past month and a half have seen a lack of reading on my part. A big reason for it is because the book I've been reading hasn't been all that fun of a read for me and it took me a long time to get through. I also don't have any unread books on my shelf right now that peak my interest. My mom just loaned me Pillars of the Earth (which numerous people I know have read and have loved), but the thing weighs 10 pounds and is 1,000 pages - so it's a bit daunting to try and start it.

I have been reading lots of magazines though. My husband had like 6,000 Northwest Airlines frequent flier miles and when NWA merged with Delta, his miles were no good. So, to "make up" for it, they offered us the opportunity to get magazines for his miles. So we ordered like six new magazines for free. We had just purged and stopped subscriptions a bunch of magazines to save money, but these were free, so why not? We now get Health, Fast Company, Allure, Travel + Leisure, Details and Esquire (again) - this is on top of Entertainment Weekly, Motor Trend, Playstation, Wired and Sports Illustrated. (I also get Glamour as a replacement for the defunct Domino, and I'm sorry but Glamour sucks - bad design, bad edit, bad everything.)

So, we've found ourselves surrounded by piles of magazines, trying to read them all. However, if I just flip through Allure and Glamour and recycle after 10 minutes, I don't feel so bad, since we're not paying for them.

Cutting Back: Magazine Subscriptions

I read this short article online at Folio which cited a Forrester Research study that found while 77 percent of people plan to keep their current number of magazines subscriptions for the near future, 18 percent plan to cut back. Those with multiple (more than five) subscriptions - 24 percent anticipate cutting back. And the harder hit type of magazine will be the consumer magazine (not business-to-business). (I was also amazed to read that more than 700 new magazines formed in 2007. How many of those do you think are still around?)

We get a lot of magazines at the house. I pay for Wired ($10/year) and EW ($36/year). I also get Domino, which was a gift. The hubby gets Esquire, Scientific American, Spin, PlayStation, Popular Science, Sports Illustrated and Motor Trend. My EW is my Sunday escape reading, so I'd really miss it. I get Wired primarily for work, but I may not renew when the time comes. And I'm not planning to start any new magazines subscriptions (I used to get several others, but I cut back last year).

I think the hubby also plans to cut back, especially when we find we don't read them all. He loves the PlayStation magazine (reads it cover to cover), most issues of SI (which I actually got on a deal for $2 for a year, so um yeah, can't go wrong there, especially for a weekly) and his car mag. But the rest are up for consideration, I think.

So, what about you? How many magazines do you get? And is this something that you're looking to cut back on in the upcoming year? As a magazine editor, I can't help but be sad at this trend - I love magazines! - but I do understand. :)