READING OUTSIDE THE MAIN

The Pottsville Free Public Library subscribes to over 200 magazines, covering a wide range of topics and age levels. Today we’d like to point out some titles you may know, and others that you may want to know, and they can all be found in our collection.

Magazines for Libraries calls National Review “the most important American conservative magazine”. Published every two weeks, this magazine provides articles focusing on politics, policy and economics, both in the United States and around the world. It also features a section called “Books, Arts & Manners”. In the Dec. 31, 2009 issue, this section included an article about Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, “The Eternal Detective”.

If conservative isn’t your style, take a peek at The Nation, which is definitely more left-wing. Articles might cover political and cultural activism, climate change, world events, or many other topics. Like its conservative counterpart, there is also a “Books & the Arts” section.

If alternative press is more your thing, we carry Utne Reader. Calling itself “The Best of the Alternative Press,” this title carries reprinted articles from a wide variety of other publications, usually grouped around one or more themes in each issue. Stories in the Jan./Feb. 2010 issue come from such sources as The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Science News, and Journal of Music.

One of our newest titles has an irresistable subtitle: Mental Floss: Feel Smart Again. This magazine features short articles on such enticing topics as “Famous People with Famously Bad Tempers”, “Crazy Smart: 11 Acts of Genius, Ripped from the Tabloids”, or “The End of Disease” (all about the use of bugs to cure what ails you).

So feel smart, feel educated, feel informed, … all at the library!