It’s recently struck me that Reader’s Digest, one of the most popular magazines in the world, is a paper-based blog.
Staunchly populist – and conservative and anti-communist, depending on the era – the magazine has been publishing condensed news stories and adverts in a visually arresting fashion since 1922. It’s uncluttered, breezy and the kind of thing you’d read when you’re waiting to do (or putting off) something important. There are lots of adverts. The reader’s comments are important. It’s distinctly bloggy.
(As a 15 year old budding writer, it made me want to write in. I submitted a few pieces to their Laughter Is The Best Medicine column, hoping to win some pocketmoney. And…nothing. Evidently I’m not funny – or I am funny but wholly useless in conveying it).
But this post isn’t about the magazine – it’s about the books.
My gran had groaning shelves of Reader’s Digest Condensed Reads. While the family caught up on familial gossip downstairs over tea & biscuits, I’d work my way through the bookcases, looking for anything violent or racy. I was entranced. 4 books in one book! It was like something by M. C. Escher. But then came the terrible, bleak day when I discovered the full meaning of the word “condensed”, and realised that these books had bits taken out (probably the violent and racy bits). It was worse than when I set my wind-up Evel Knieval on fire for the full-bore stunt spectacle – and discovered I couldn’t put him out. It was bad.
But there are the other books.
I’m reading one right now. It’s part of the People and Places series, and it’s called In Search Of Australia And The South Pacific. And I’m enjoying it immensely. The writing is superb and the photos magnificent. It’s the kind of coffee-table book that has you poring over it for hours, leading to awkward situations when it’s not your coffee table.
The thing is, most Reader’s Digest books are this good. It’s curious. You’d expect them to be plainly-written regurgitations of facts you’re wearily over-familiar with already. In my experience, that’s not the case. (Flaw in this argument: maybe I’m ignorant. Remedy: disregard entire blog post. Kthx). They’re usually high-quality overview reference books, the kind to bring your children up with. The good ones are well worth hunting down – particularly the atlases.
And the great things is that hunting them down is easy. As anyone knows who has received Reader’s Digest promotional material through their letterbox, or put differently, ‘As everyone knows’ – there are approximately 500 of these books written and published every second. Fact. And this has been going on for decades, so there are at least…oh, you work it out, I’m too busy thinking up my next ludicrous exaggeration for artistic effect.
There are so damn many of these usually damn fine books in circulation that all second-hand bookshops and charity shops in the West are stuffed with them. Amazon has barrowloads. They’re everywhere. Close your eyes and walk ten paces with your arms outstretched: chances are, you’ll bump into one on the way. Another fact.
And they’re all like reading really good blogs. (The useful kind, not like my kind of blog).
So next time you’re browsing the shelves of your local tome-vendor, pull out the Reader’s Digest books and have a look. You might be pleasantly surprised.
This post was sponsored by….no, not really.
Images: thenoodleator, avern, phalinn.
Oh, what a flashback! A very clear childhood memory for me is of my mom sitting on the couch in the living room reading her latest Reader’s Digest Condensed Book (of books). In our basement, we had a bookshelf where the past volumes lived. Though mom didn’t have a collection on par with your gran’s.
Mom still reads Reader’s Digest. In fact, I have a renewal statement in my stack of bills just waiting to be paid in order to continue her subscription.
As for your “Laughter Is The Best Medicine” snubs, I can assure you that you’re both funny and capable of expressing it.
You’re too kind to me, as always.
Did it ever bug you that you were reading a rationalized / dumbed down (delete as applicable according to taste) version? Did you ever go away and read the full version?
Memories! I remember the “It Pays to Increase Your Wordpower” quizzes. I’m not sure if it paid, but I did increase my wordpower.
Yes, I was obsessed with those. I remember getting the green light to marmalize lots of my gran’s old RDs, so I went in with scissors and chopped out all the useful stuff – mainly the ‘Wordpower’.
(I had an odd notion of making myself a kind of mental training regime in book form, to do for 20 minutes a day, like a workout. I still like this idea – especially when I read things like this).
It was a RD book (something about the way to perfect health or something euqally attractive and improbable) that finally persuaded me in my thirties to start eating vegetables. Quite impressive when you consider that my mother and husband had failed in thirty years of trying between them. This same book was however entirely unsuccessful in persuading me to abstain from alcohol. One out of two – not bad.
Even books have their limits. For example, there ain’t no book in the world that could scare me off coffee.
Unless maybe the title was “Mike Sowden – If You Drink Any More Coffee I Will Hunt You Down Like A Dawg” by Chuck Norris.
The modern version is Brain Age on the Nintendo DS. Works, too, or learn a new language and start doing needlework. I read most of that, but the language and Nintendo info is real.
I’ve heard Brain Age works wonders, yes.
But learning a language is a biggie – and one of my rants waiting to happen ever since I read a book that suggested that to make efficient use of your time, you should only ever use English, because it’s the “world language”. Lovely. Fact is, a language isn’t just a string of works said differently – it’s a different set of *meanings*, of new ways to *think*….
But no, I will rant on this another time, and merely say that I agree with you with the whole of my brain.
I have not picked up a Reader’s Digest book since I was in my teens. This is a whole new perspective on them. I usually pass by them without a thought when I’m at a used book store (or think, geez, how many of these are there? Who buys them? [I know the answer to that one now] Get them out of the way, please, and let me at the real books …) You know I’m not going to be able to resist picking up one or two or nine now, don’t you?
They never published any of my submissions to the Laughter is the Best Medicine column either. And the pain of it all is that I actually knew someone (at the time – I was in my teens – I thought of him as really old. He was probably, oh, 30?) who actually DID get something published. They sent him a nice cheque, and the thing is, in real life I never heard him say anything remotely comical.
That’s what annoys me. I wouldn’t mind if people like Hugh Laurie or Joss Whedon got stuff regularly published in there. But it tortures me that there are people out there who manifestly aren’t funny in real life, yet make money from being “witty”.
None of this is sour grapes on my part. None of it. I’m bigger than that. And not bitter.
I could have been a contender. But, but I chose not to. Despite what I said up there about submitting stuff to RD. It was….irony. Yes, that’s it.
*kicks stray copy of RD magazine round the room*
Nice to know you had the same reaction with the Condensed Reads. Did any infuriate you enough to go get the full-sized versions? (In which case, their business model pays off nicely?)
And – here’s a doozy of a question….
Would you allow one of your books to be Condensed?
No, I don’t think I’d ever want one of my books to be condensed. I hate condensed versions. Hate them with a passion! The thought of what I might be missing would keep me up for nights on end. I mean, how do you know you can actually TRUST the person doing the condensing?
Having said that, I must admit to a love of the BBC Radio Dramatizations of Agatha Christie novels. You get the whole plot and solution in two hours.
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I have subscribed to the Reader’s Digest Books. I enjoy reading the books but because of financial situations…. I must cancel my subscription to the books. How do I do that?
I’m afraid I’ve no idea….
…but I reckon this is where you’ll find out how: http://www.rd.com/help/customerServiceLanding.do