I have a confession to make.
I subscribe to several fashion magazines.
I keep them in the bathroom, mostly. Sometimes I take them on airplanes.
But, see, they are good for my writing. Really.
Fashion magazines are very image-heavy. They make a nice break from reading prose, and (unlike comics) let my mind wander a bit while I look at them. Fashion photography is often very strange, juxtaposing languid women in sleek outfits with bizarre settings, such as a lipstick factory. Even the more ordinary photographs sometimes, to me, seem bizarre, like science fiction. They spark weird ideas in my mind, unlikely connections.
They take me into a different world. Sometimes, that’s what you need.
I’ll take your subscriptions and raise you newsstand purchases as well! (Dare we say addicted?) Love fashion magazines and your excuse works for me! But I do think that when you work with words all day, you enjoy switching to images. At least, that’s what I tell myself…
We need images to renew our words, or something fancy like that.