Reader's Digest magazine and the like

[kythe]

I was 13 when my grandmother gave me a subscription to Reader's Digest. She wanted me to improve my vocabulary with the word power section, but I took more to the humorous stories. I also remember "Drama in Real Life" and the book except section. Some of those stories have really stuck with me over the years.

 

[clovis-man]

My mom also had a large collection of the Reader's Digest congested books.

I like the term "congested" as opposed to "condensed". I seem to recall that Mad magazine once referred to it as "Reader's Disgust".

After all these years I remember reading of "Abu Simbel" in one of those magazines....Here's an issue with an Abu Simbel cover story and coverage of Apollo 8, too... things to interest a young budding sf reader.

This issue coincided with my older son's birth month and year. So I have made sure that he has a copy of his own.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I used to live Reader's Digest and still have several of the "congested books" on my shelves. Love that name.

I had a biography of the artist El Greco from one of them which I read at age 16 when I should have been revising for my O levels. That story has stuck in my mind for all these years.

Nostalgia.

 

[BigBadBob141]

I found in one of the Readers Digest condensed books Arthur C Clarkes "A Fall Of Moondust", about the only SF I came across in one of these.

 

[hitmouse]

Another magazine that some of y'all might remember was Parade, a magazine included with Sunday newspapers. For that matter-- My Weekly Reader, handed out in American schools. These periodicals, as well, of course, as the familiar Life, Newsweek, etc. occasionally featured items that might strike the imaginations of kids who were becoming sf fans.

Now, in Britain in the pre-internet 1970s and 80s, Parade was part of a precious and illicit commodity amongst schoolboys, since it was a top-shelf magazine, containing photographs of ladies without their clothes on.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Shocking!!!

 

[HanaBi]

Now, in Britain in the pre-internet 1970s and 80s, Parade was part of a precious and illicit commodity amongst schoolboys, since it was a top-shelf magazine, containing photographs of ladies without their clothes on.

I have two memories of the word "Parade" going back to my wreckless youth of the 70s. One Parade, was as you've already mentioned, concerned the rather naughty top-shelf mag adorned in our local newsagents. I never really understood why the ladies on the front cover of this mag (and other top-shelf mags of a similar genre) were covered in yellow or red stars on various parts of their semi-nude bodies!

Such childhood innocence

The other "Parade" relates to what I think was a set of very short tv commercials all batched together under the banner of "Parade". These commercials were nothing more than cheap local advertisers selling their wares on local commercial tv back in the 60s and early 70s - things like local curry houses, builders, plumbers, pet walkers etc, with each ad lasting no more than around 10 seconds.

As for Readers Digest. Well my grandparents used to hoard these things for years during the 60s and 70s. We had boxes full of them. But they were a great source of information for me during my childhood, given that we had no internet or multi-channelled TV back then. The articles were great, but the puzzles and word games were my favourites.

Last time I read RD was during a visit to my local dentist 10 or so years ago. Difficult to know which was more painful - the spurious RD articles or the two fillings I had to endure!

 

[Extollager]

Shocking!!!

A different Parade than the one I was mentioning, a magazine supplement to American newspapers.

 

[Parson]

I'm with you Extollager. I learned about "top shelf" magazines. In my youth, there were "behind the counter" magazines and had to ask for them. Embarrassing enough that I was never tempted. But when you said Parade, the American magazine was what I had in mind.

 

[Timba]

This is a tangent: but how about the Book-of-the-Month Club? Yes, I know there was a Science Fiction Book Club for many years (but it's gone now, isn't it?). But does anyone remember the BoMC as featuring things that, in some way or other, stirred the interest of people who were or would become sf and fantasy fans?

The BoMC did offer T. H. White's Lilliputian fantasy Mistress Masham's Repose and probably his Once and Future King... Does anyone read these any more, by the way?

The
SciFI Book club still exists. Having now switched to e-books I finally cancelled my 50+ year membership. Felt kind of sad about it.

 

[Parson]

The
SciFI Book club still exists. Having now switched to e-books I finally cancelled my 50+ year membership. Felt kind of sad about it.

Parson shakes his head in disbelief. A fifty year membership?!! They should have been paying you rather than the other way around!!

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

I always used to enjoy the jokes at the end of each article.

I came across some RD's relatively recently, and those funny stories were gone.

They still offer a $100 bounty for each joke or story they print in the physical edition. Not sure they're entirely above board though as they gain all rights upon publication no matter the format, but only pay for publication in print.

 

[Elvraie]

Reader's Digest... Sélections, as we called them. They have or had an edition in French and my Grand-Father was fond of them. Good in the 1950's or 60's French countryside when they were not awashed by printed stuff. He got a subscription to us in the 70's or 80's and that's right, it was a pain for my parents to get rid off. I saw once a RD's English edition and it was similar to the French one, bar the language. Same jokes, rather inoffensive articles, etc... Also, for a while, my grandad was buying us the condensed books in those nice, leather-like covers. It was a modest luxury, for him, who was a great reader. I read one or two, in my teenage years. My mum may still have these books somewhere.

 

[Extollager]

Here's a list of Reader's Digest Condensed Books... Not very heavy on sf! The listing may spark some "Oh yeah, I remember that" moments.

Reader's Digest Condensed Books - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia