This is not good. I just got back from my neighborhood Waldenbooks, where I was looking for the July issue of The National Review. I wanted to read this article, which purports to be a fairly definitive chronological history of the decision to use WMDs as the pretext for going to war with Iraq. It pulls together a lot of previously-dispersed information into one place, and indicts Rice and Cheney in particular for outright deception.
However. In 25-30 linear feet of space allocated for magazines at the store, I couldn't find a copy of the magazine. Not only that, I could find only two general-interest magazines (no, not Time, Newsweek, or US News): Harpers and Atlantic Monthly. Now, I've got nothing against hobbyists and their reading material, nor do I have anything against men or women, but when the floor-to-ceiling shelf space is taken up entirely with women's fashion magazines like Elle, Vogue, and Cosmo, and with men's (lad's?) magazines like FHM and Maxim, and with every damned craft/auto/bodybuilding/health magazine currently still in existence during the current ad slump, there's something mildly disturbing going on. I asked if they ordinarily carried magazines like The New Yorker; I was told that the space dictated what they carried. The unspoken fact is that they also carry what they expect to sell, of course; I can only hope my neighbors all subscribe to the newsier publications.
Posted by Linkmeister at July 2, 2003 12:18 PMWaldenbooks? 'Nuff said. Looking for sophistication in a mall chain bookstore is like looking for culture of any kind in a Blockbuster Video outlet!
Posted by: Ryan at July 2, 2003 03:33 PMUh, Linky? They stock what sells, hon. If that's Elle and Vogue, then, well, it's Elle and Vogue. Find a neighborhood that wants to read the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's, and you might find a bookstore that carries it. Just sayin'.
Posted by: Jen at July 2, 2003 05:51 PMHmph. As I said, I recognize that, but still. This is the same bookstore that stopped stocking mainland newspapers about ten years ago because the (vertical) rack they were on "took up too much space." Grr.
Posted by: Linkmeister at July 2, 2003 07:39 PMAnother possibility is that they can read the newsier publications on the net. A little more convenient and considerate of our environment as well! :)
Posted by: ali at July 2, 2003 10:43 PMDo you really think they have that many people coming in and asking for the Atlantic Monthly???
It was hard enough for me to get the old George Magazine a few years ago...and The New Yorker is impossible to get where I live..
If you want a wrestling magazine you can hit it bigtime in NJ!!!! I hate it here...but you already knew that...
Labrat, that's because everyone should avoid the New Yorker at all costs! Talk about snobby and pretentious!
Posted by: Faith at July 6, 2003 03:33 AMFaith, maybe she only looks at the cartoons. ;)
And a correction: the magazine title I should have been looking for was The New Republic, not the National Review. Made no difference; neither was stocked.
Posted by: Linkmeister at July 6, 2003 01:51 PM