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Feelin' the Texture


Oh my Monday! I say this not because it is Monday, but because we have been having endless days of 30 Celsius weather and our A/C is broken! Our air people came and patched it up as a temporary fix last Tuesday, but by Friday it conked out again. That means, for the whole weekend we fried our asses off! They are here now to install a new system, and all I have to say is that if it isn't fixed by tonight. I will seriously cry. Very hot tears!

Anyways...

As you know, I am a stalwart hardcopy reader. No Kindles, no e-readers, no reading things on devices, I like paper books, newspapers and magazines, thank you!

Paper books seem to be sticking around, but print magazines and newspapers have been dying for a while now, much to my dismay. As I wrote about a few months ago, we gave up and went digital for our Globe and Mail subscription and will be going to the PDF version of the Toronto Star soon. Its just becoming prohibitively expensive to buy the print versions!

I have always been a big print magazine subscriber. I love magazines! They are my guilty pleasure. No mindless drivel like People, or tabloids, however, absurdity like fashion magazines! No, I prefer 'lifestyle' magazines, particularly Canadian ones like Chatelaine, Canadian Living and Best Health. I also love Toronto Life, Today's Parent, and occasionally some of the fitness magazines like Women's Fitness and healthy cooking ones like Cooking Light and Clean Eating.

 Unfortunately, buying off the news stand is insanely expensive, and even getting subscriptions is increasingly costly. And then, after I read them, I feel guilty recycling them so I feel compelled to (a) keep them, (b) donate them/give them to a  friend, or (c) put them in the waiting room of my counselling office.

After renewing my Chatelaine magazine subscription last year I received a letter from them informing me that although I will not be getting any of my money back, they will now only be publishing it in print 6x a year. For compensation they sent me an ugly fuschia scarf. I don't wear scarves and I hate the colour fuschia! Then I received no magazines for almost an entire year, leading me to think I was never going to receive any. That was the final straw!

Sometimes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

I signed up for Texture, the app that allows you access to a multitude of magazines online. Its only $9.99 a month, which is far less per year than what I was paying for just a few print subscriptions!

Though I still prefer reading print, I have to say, I am really enjoying my Texture subscription. It sucks down the power on my old Ipad super quickly, but I never run out of stuff to read, which is awesome. I am still getting used to reading off my Ipad while on the subway or bus, and trying not to feel self-conscious about looking like I am a digital junky like the rest of the world, but at least I am not reading off my phone. That's where I draw the line!

The other nice thing is that you get access to your account from 5 different devices so Adam and the girls have downloaded the app and are enjoying it too.

While I am pretty happy with Texture, don't even talk to me about reading books on a device, to me, that is just sacrilege!

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