Periodical Survey
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.
On this journey of life, sharing my existence with God’s wonderful creation, there is nothing that thrills my heart more than knowing that my moments drip with purpose and destiny. 
Comments
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.
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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.
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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.
I am 43 and a girl :) 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 :).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Everyone – I really appreciate you responding to this survey.
Danielle – I don’t think I have ever heard his theory. Enlighten us please.
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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. ;-)
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Becky – That is great to know. Yes, very thorough. :-) Thank you.
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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….
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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. ;-)
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Alece and Jutta – Thanks for taking the time to fill me in.
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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
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Linda – Hi to you! Thanks for filling this out.
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