Readers Digest

This is a very cherished post for the blog because till now I have been writing mostly standalone book reviews. In this blog, I’ll be sharing my love for long standing and continuous feature from 3 decades ie Reader's Digest. I used to read this monthly magazine when in my teens as it was a regular sighting in school Library but let me confess that it was an elitist concept to have RD as part of your school library and if someone caught you reading then the teasing was unavoidable. 

If you take any magazine, it is divided into several columns and features, of which different readers have different liking and dislikings (or less liking) which they skip altogether. So for me, there are a few sections of Reader's Digest which I like the most, the first is "Laughter, the Best Medicine" in which the jokes as provided by the readers across globe are shared, then there is Word Power to know about different word related to the particular theme like it may be any geographical term, event etc. Trivia basically focuses on Quiz type questions. There is one more lovely feature in which the magazine introduces one personality like writer, artists, critic or public figure and she/he discusses and gives books and literature he prefers to read and why. Every magazine edition is theme specific, like August 2026 is themed "Portraits of Hope" compiled by Ishani Nandi wherein she has collaborated with lead photographers of India. Top contributors on people, places and moments are Bandeep Singh of India Today group, Sounak Banerjee of CSCP, Akash Das, Shreya Patil Mumbai, Dinesh Khanna among others. They have shared their photographs with brief writeup. This becomes more special as in August 19th we observe World Photography Day. The objective of this like any cover story is to introduce the issue/theme and present different perspective on the matter, so that we can have balanced opinion. Another regular feature of RD is Quotable Quotes. 

The best part of having any magazine subscription is that you dearly wait for the magazine to arrive and flipping to your favourite part. Reading with kids, who have their own preferred section, is an added advantage because in times of shorts and reels if a kid waits for any magazine, just read their favourite article or column is itself an achievement and hence RD is worth it. Like I was discussing with my son in July' 26 edition on how to "Reduce your Waste" in which the author have deliberated on the topic of waste reduction as it leads to the pressure on environment. Further they have shared as to how we can reduce it, reading with kids is like making next-gen ready. We as a generation used to have things as needed rather than use for accumulation, particularly Kids were happy to know that earlier one product was having multiple uses like coconut oil which was used for cooking, hair care, moisturising, make up,  unlike modern world where everyone has customised products for each of these functions. In the same edition, we have read how the AI is impacting the drug industry and drug repurposing is one of the best use of AI for doctors as severe diseases can be treated by existing drugs because developing new drug for that particular disease is money-consuming, time-consuming with results not to be sure about.

If I can find one magazine which fits for the entire family, it has to be RD as everyone will find one corner or another to relate and read it.