Shane Life

When I was in college, I loved my magazines. I got all the typical “dude” magazines — Maxim, Stuff…I think I even got FHM for a while. I read every Maxim cover-to-cover. At that time, it was a great magazine. It sounds corny, but I really did read it for the articles. I still remember an article on Saddam Hussein’s two sons that was particularly harrowing and fascinating.

Over time, I grew out of that mentality. I got married and began my search for a better magazine, one that was relevant to what I liked and what interested me. I tried GQ for a while. I thought that GQ was a sensible step forward from Maxim, something a little more mature. Except that it was too mature. I was still in my 20’s and GQ seemed so late-30’s to me. Plus, it took itself a lot more seriously than it should, especially when they were running articles about how Jessica Simpson was the “All-American Girl”.

For the last couple years, I’ve been subscribing to Wired. I figured as a technology professional, it made sense. It’s an interesting enough magazine, filled with fascinating articles and nerdy things. There tend to be very interesting nuggets, but they are not nearly as frequent as I’d like.

Then, last summer before we left for Italy, I picked up Best Life, a magazine put out by the editors of Men’s Health. I steered clear of picking it up at first, focusing on the books I had brought to read. But on the train one day, I pulled out my Best Life, an oversized magazine that looked promising.

I ended up reading the magazine cover-to-cover. Each section was well-written and extremely interesting and had insight into things that mattered like how to improve your finances and your relationships, your health and your career.

Finally, a magazine that that I looked forward to getting every month!

One problem. It only comes out 10 times per year. That is not acceptable. At least give me my other two issues for my subscription fees. And keep the great issues coming.