Are you a reader?
Below are 3 questions about your reading habits. Please respond in the comment section as briefly or as thoroughly as you like. Thanks for placating my curiosity.
- What specific periodicals do you read on a regular basis? (Include the names of newspapers, magazines, catalogs, RSS feeds, online articles, etc.)
- Where are you usually when you read these periodicals?
- During a given day how much time would you estimate you spend reading (or skimming) these periodicals?
Extra Credit Questions:
- How old are you?
- Are you a guy or a girl?
If you would like to respond anonymously then please write me at: angielwashington (at) gmail (dot) com.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! Um … I try to read my blogs regularly. For a specific list, you can see my blogroll. I also receive Israel Today in my inbox (there’s a link to that in my sidebar) everyday. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I don’t. That’s about it, really. We don’t have any magazines delivered to the house or anything like that. Blogging usually takes up so much of my time – I’m trying to fit in some book reading (since I have … about 8 really good books in the house to read right now). That’s all!
Oh. I am 30.
and I’m a girl.
I don’t read any periodicals on a regular basis. I take no magazines and reading my Facebook occasionally is about the closest I get.
I order Discipleship journal and read it when it finally makes it to my part of the world. I also read a few blogs (5) and I have an RSS feed to the Washington Post (mostly because it came set up on my computer and I can’t figure out what other newspapers might be free- I am not real internet savvy). I look at the RSS feeds most days but only read one or two articles as the internet is too slow where I live in remote Kenya. I do however read lots of books – mostly in the evenings when there isn’t much else to do.
even to my local friends because I don’t have children and haven’t been married. So, I just tell them I am a very old girl and they all laugh 
.
I am 43 and a girl
I usually have a US News, News Week, or Time in my hand or back pocket. I usually read at work when it’s slow or if I have a break when I’m out or about doing my thing. I’d say at least two hours a day. Keeps me up to date on world events and the war. However I can’t find US News here in Iraq! It sucks. I’m 28 and a male.
1. WHAT
- Rocky Mountain News – weekends only
- Christianity Today (monthly)
- Evangelical Missions Quarterly
- Women of the Harvest (online)
Catalogs – We get at least a dozen regularly. I’m trying to start throwing mine away (OK, recycling them!) rather than let them pile up or stir up my desire to buy!
RSS feeds / articles: varies a lot. I read the ones I feel I need to for my work as a mobilizer/publisher; Brigada, Momentum, Go Connect all provide entry to interesting stuff that pops up elsewhere. I have 70 feeds in my feed reader at present; probbably half of them are missions-related. Many are personal friends who blog very inconsistently, and I subscribe so I won’t miss it if they post their once-in-a-blue-moon update. I probably read 5-10 posts a day.
I receive half a dozen organizational newsletters from mission organizations – usually sent quarterly; if they are online, monthly: Frontiers, Pioneers, SIM, Partners International, a few others; and several dozen missionary newsletters, mix of paper/email, most sent quarterly. I am probably on 50+ mailing lists. So I can’t say I pray for every prayer letter I get. So now when I write my own, I try not to assume that everyone who gets a “prayer letter” can be expected pray. Still, I’m in awe of how many do. I also get my church’s prayer chain, which comes out a couple times a week.
2. WHERE
Internet ones – anywhere. Work, home, traveling. I do check my email accounts and feeds frequently. Many things I skim and file, or delete. Paper: when I get my mail, at office or home. Except for the catalogs, newspapers, magazines, which will pile up and be read while eating or enjoying a cup of tea, often.
3. HOURS: 1-2 hours, maybe more? But keeping up on a lot of this is part of my job, not just about the relationships.
Hmm! Read news? Why would I want to do that? My husband will tell me anything he thinks is interesting which is usually way more than I think interesting.
One of our churches sends us the Baptist Bulletin which I usually quickly flip through while standing over the garbage can. We receive National Geographic which I read about halfway through usually in bed after 10 p.m. I read the Women of the Harvest webzine each time it comes out. I have several RSS feeds of my family’s and friends’ blogs and an RSS feed to my daily Bible reading. All those I read at the computer in the dining room while the kids eat breakfast and do their independent work, about 30 minutes a day. (I would love to receive Reader’s Digest and a few other magazines, but postage to Mexico is prohibitive. I make do with raiding the Bajio Homeschool library and reading as many books as I can fit in each month.
I am 40 and I am a girl.
27.
In Style, Parenting and missionary newsletters
Not much time at all each day — maybe 30 minutes / week
Do you remember Greg Ford’s theory on where most newsletters are read?
I read the Jerusalem post everyday and sometimes an internet version of a newspaper here in Israel, ynet. Also, I get Charissma magazine, the online version, sent to my email so I can see it once a month. Once in a while, if I hear something is going on in the states or elsewhere, I look at CNN or FOX news online as well. Other than that, not too much time spent on it, just depends on what’s going on that day.
Everyone – I really appreciate you responding to this survey.
Danielle – I don’t think I have ever heard his theory. Enlighten us please.
I read or browse through Better Homes and Gardens, Midwest Living, and Country Living, for as long as the remaining subscription lasts. I usually read these while cozied-up on the livingroom couch.
I will read Highlights magazines whenever I get the chance, though my subscription ran out and I haven’t re-subscribed yet. Though I plan too. This I also usually read (with a kid or two–or not) while cozied-up on the livingroom couch.
I recently subscribed to Writers Digest and hubby recently subscribed to Guns and Ammo (how much of that one I’ll read is to be determined).
This is not a daily thing for me. Usually I do my reading within a week or so of receiving them in the mail, I’d say 20 minutes or so per mag at a time, maybe a few days per month.
Do blogs count? I follow several, including this one.
I would say I spend an average of 30 minutes per day reading blogs.
Let’s see…I receive the OneNewsNow email update and AFA Action alerts. Do those count? And several writing-related e-newsletters (Write4Kids, Writer Gazette, Writing World), but I don’t always read them unless an article title stands out to me. Kidmagwrites.com is a e-mag that I visit at least once a month.
Is that enough detail for you??
Oh, I’m 33 and a girl.
Becky – That is great to know. Yes, very thorough.
Thank you.
the only things i read with any sort of consistency are blogs. i’m usually on my bed or a comfy couch, reading on my laptop. how much time reading? hmmm… an hour?
i’m a 30-year old girl….
I guess, I am way behind in answering your survey. Which shows that I don’t get to read and comment on blogs every day.
While in Africa most of it comes in electronic form:
* a daily e-mail with headlines from BBC, one from DerStandard, an Austrian newspaper, and from Comics.com;
* a weekly e-mail from Books& Culture (ChristianityToday.com) and Politics this week (The Economist.com);
* a monthly e-mail reminder for the new issues of Evangelical Missions Quarterly.
* and two Christian magazines from Germany (Aufatmen, Salzkorn).
* Plus there are the blogs, too many, in varying numbers and for varying amounts of time.
* While in the US I sometimes get other magazines if they come with a promotional price,, e.g. $4 for the whole year of Newsweek or Times.
Hard to say how much time I use in average, maybe an hour but unevenly distributed.
Electronic reading happens wherever the computer is, paper reading in a cozy chair in front of the window.
And for those who don’t know – I am a 49 year old girl.
Alece and Jutta – Thanks for taking the time to fill me in.
Hi Angie,
I read the K.C. Mo. newspaper every morning after reading the Bible. I read magazines only when I’m having my hair styled or when I buy an occasional Better Homes and Gardens, Ophrah magazine or Cooking Light to read at home. I read the current People (Hollywood gossip) magazine while waiting for the dye on my hair to set at the beauty salon. It’s fun reading junk while I’m in a no brainer mode. I used to take more lofty reading material with me, but decided to just kick back and enjoy the different atmosphere.
I also read the blogs that my husband Tom writes for Journey Church.
I like to read notes that friends write on Facebook also, while often responding to them, like I’m doing now. I read at least 2 hours a day. I am in my 60′s
Linda – Hi to you! Thanks for filling this out.