Something's Got To Give

And that something is my subscription to The Economist. Not that there's anything wrong with the weekly magazine. Far from it. It's an excellent source for world news, especially business and economic, and provides a perspective that you will not find in the US media. If I was limited to only being able to take one magazine on a flight (and we may be headed for such Draconian measures), it would be The Economist.

However, with my daily newspaper, bi-weekly magazine, monthly journal, and book (to say nothing of the pearls posted by Saint Paul and Atomizer every six weeks or so) reading, I find myself with no time to keep up with the weekly delivery of The Economist. I'm lucky to skim through the contents and read one or two articles before the next issue lands. Then there are two of them demanding my attention and inspiring bouts of regret and guilt.

The only way out is to not renew my subscription. I will miss The Economist for a variety of reasons. I will even miss the telemarketing calls urging me to re-up with the magazine. There's something about a British accent on the other end of the line that makes even the most irritating of telephone annoyances tolerable.

Cheerio chum.

UPDATE-- Joe Carter from the evangelical outpost e-mails with a possible solution:

About a year ago I was struck by a similar problem. I noticed that there were numerous times throughout the day when I would have unproductive downtime that could have been better spent catching up on my reading. Invariably I would be in a location (e.g., public restrooms, in line at the post office) that made it difficult to carry around a book or magazine. The solution came to me while using my Hipster PDA, so in homage to Mann?s essential tool I introduce the Hipster Reader.

Building your first Hipster Reader:

1. Get a bunch of magazines and journals.
2. Rip out the pages you want to read.
3. Fold them into shapes of roughly 3"x5".
4. Clip them together with a binder.

How to use your Hipster Reader:

Carry two or three articles in your pocket or purse. Use them for reading material when you have several minutes of unproductive downtime.