If you’re like me, before you buy a magazine, you first flip through the pages. You couldn’t do that –– virtually ––online until last week, when Barnes & Noble began selling digital
downloadable magazine subscriptions with its “See Inside” feature, which enables customers to experience interactive previews of the magazine’s content. I clicked through the May 2008 issue of ELLE, and it was almost like standing in line at the grocery counter flipping through a magazine: I could hardly find the articles for all the ads. “See Inside” allows access only to the first pages of the magazine –– not so good for “back-flippers,” those who flip through magazines from back to front. The good news is you can move your magazine habit to your laptop. Digital downloads are convenient, and the price is all right. Save beaucoup on Saveur, $20 for a one-year subscription, dwell for $20, Reader’s Digest for $10, and Woman’s Day, $10. Who says last month’s magazine is trash? Reading the last six months of a beloved publication can be a wonderful pastime, as anyone who has spent some time in their doctor’s waiting room or at the beauty shop can attest. One of the coolest features of this new B&N service is you can download individual back issues. Missed last December’s Cosmopolitan, which had this juicy perennial on its cover: “Guys Spill: White Lies they Tell Women All the Time”? Or perhaps you’d like to read about 45 things to do before you die, no doubt balanced by Jack Nicholson’s rules for living in the January 2008 issue of Men’s Journal ($5).











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