Reader’s Digest, My Favorite Magazine for a Lifetime

Reader’s Digest is a magazine founded by DeWitt and Lila Bell Wallace in 1922 at New York. Its global edition reaches 40 million people in 70 countries. It has a worldwide circulation of 17 million copies in 21 languages making it the best selling monthly magazine in the world. The Reader’s Digest is a compact magazine half the size of other American magazines. It is a general interest family magazine covering topics such as health and medicines, exercise, foods, personal finances, inspirations, new technologies, celebrities, places, history and others.

When I was little, my late father used to have US magazines in our house such as Times, Newsweek, Life and Reader’s Digest. Although I studied English in school, reading comprehension in English in my young age was a bit a struggle since it is only my second language, and except in official and formal activities the language is not spoken by people in their daily casual conversation. Back then there was not yet a computer or an internet. I enjoyed the now defunct Life magazine whose beautiful color pictures enticed me to turn its every page. My interest of seeing the pictures in Life and reading local magazines passed on to other American magazines to include the Reader’s Digest. At that time the issues of Reader’s Digest that I read came from the United States. The articles in the magazine were in well educated-formal style. They were written by people who were very knowledgeable in their respective fields of interest.

With Reader’s Digest and other magazines my reading comprehension improved over time. I can say that my study of the English Language in school was enhanced by the American magazines that I was reading. I was able to polish up my grammar and enlarge my vocabulary.                                                                                                                     

In my leisure time I would prefer the Reader’s Digest to paperbacks because I could enjoy and finish reading several topics in a short time. In a paperback I would have to spend much time reading the whole book to get the gist of the whole story.

The Reader’s Digest later had an Asian edition published in Hong-Kong. The Reader’s Digest that I used to read was the American edition. I am reading the Asian edition now. The two editions are not similar because American edition covers topics that concerns mostly the United States and the articles are written by Americans. The Asian edition on the other hand covers topics that include those that concern the Asian region and some of the writers are Asians. The magazine however is still written in English, and selected popular articles from the American Reader’s Digest edition issues are also included in the Asian issues.

Before the advent of the computer and the internet I read or researched from books, encyclopedia and magazines to learn or know things. One of my favorite reading materials was the Readers Digest. It helped me learn how to stay fit and healthy, how to groom myself properly and how to eat the right food and many other things. I was also touched by factual stories of people overcoming difficulties and emerging victorious against all the odds. Those stories inspired me, it also helped me to develop positive outlook in life. I learn my lessons in life from school, from my love ones, from the books and magazines that I read and from my own experiences. I can say that the Reader’s Digest is one of the sources of knowledge and inspiration that have an influence on my character as a person.  And this influence is for the better.

The sales of broadsheets, paper magazines, books and encyclopedias have declined because of digital technologies. Today, people can just browse the internet to do research or read news. They can also just press the icons of apps on the screen of their smart phone. Some popular TV networks and magazines are available as apps that can be downloaded to the Smart phone or computer. Probably, in the near future others will follow suit. In spite of the technological advancement, I would prefer to read my favorite magazine, the Reader’s Digest, in hard copies.