Bookstores of Suburbia

January 30, 2011

Entry for Sunday, 1/23/11

Subjects: Inspiration & Education

My Rolling Stone issue (#1122) with Jimmy Fallon on the cover was long overdue via the mail, so on Sunday, January 23, 2011, after visiting my parents in Ellicott City, I ventured over to the nearby Barnes & Noble. Once parked and inside the store, I knew exactly where to go to find what I needed, despite the redesigned floor plan.

Why the special trip for a simple magazine? Hello! It’s Jimmy Fallon, comedian-turned-late-night-talk-show-host, who I’ve publicly had a crush on since his debut on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1998! Moreover, it’s his first time gracing the cover of the pop culture periodical. He’s now in the company of many legends before him. Shel Silverstein penned a little ditty satirizing the significance of this career achievement in the 1970s. Below are some of the lyrics from “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” first performed by “Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.”

"Well we are big rock singers, we've got golden fingers
And we're loved everywhere we go
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten thousand dollars a show
We take all kind of pills to give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll get you when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
{Refrain}
Rolling Stone
    Wanna see my picture on the cover
Rolling Stone
    Wanna buy five copies for my mother
Rolling Stone
    Wanna see my smilin' face"
On the cover of the Rolling Stone"

While there, I also bought a copy of Digital Photographer (Issue #104), which I thought would come in handy with my new P104 Class “Digital Photographic Production.” It comes with “Over two hours of free editing video tutorials” for Photoshop. This month’s ‘It Girl’, Natalie Portman, graces the cover.

Before leaving the periodicals section of the store, I took a moment to observe the myriad of different titles Barnes & Noble carried and how they chose to categorize them. An official count wasn’t conducted, but it’s safe to guess that there were at least 200 different journals lining the shelves. There seems to be a print medium catering to every niche market from cooking and cars to finance and fashion, and as a journalist, I definitely took a moment to consider that despite the bleak outlook for print media, it’s apparently booming in the magazine realm. I took a few minutes and photographed each section (the only one missing is “Men’s Interest” – the image was too blurry to upload). The last picture is an image of Vogue‘s Spring-Summer 2011 Collections issue which initially caught my eye when I arrived.