Although we operate a shoot-from-the-hip design blog, we actually draw from a great deal of professional literature. By ‘professional’ we’re referring to periodicals comprised of articles written by authors who actually went to school for journalism or English literature. These individuals have a command of language, a thesis of communication, and don’t rely on spell check as the only means of quality control. In a nutshell, they’re just as serious about writing and reporting as we are about design and buildings.
In theory, we can’t get enough exposure to good writing and we’ve had little hesitation signing up for a new subscription or buying a book based on someone’s off-the-cuff recommendation. Currently we receive a healthy list of periodicals: The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, The Atlantic Monthly, Architectural Record, Dwell Magazine, Arcade Magazine, Sunset Magazine, Gastronomica, Cook’s Illustrated, GQ, Esquire and we probably pick up enough copies of Wallpaper magazine at the airport to be considered honorary subscribers. All great magazines with talented writers, no doubt. But here’s the snafu – lately they’re just stacking up in piles. We engage in a tremendous amount of online reading (primarily the link list to the left) and there just isn’t enough time in the day to make it through all the text coming in through the door. We’ve got too much input.
So as of January 2010 we’re leting all subscriptions lapse – no new input, we’re starting with a clean slate. Maybe some of them are worth renewing or maybe we’ll never miss them. In re-establishing our input, one thing is for sure – our choices are already limited to what we know and what we don’t know. So we’re looking to the future with a new factor in BUILDblog input… you. That’s right, we want to hear from our readers, what physical informational input are you into? Who are you reading and why? Who are the authors and periodicals carving out the future? Hit that comments button and share your intel.
