Reading and Writing Task 3 - Review of an academic magazine

Book of review: Reader’s Digest, November 2012 issue

According to the editor, November is the ‘month of brave women’. In this issue, there are three real-life dramas of these ‘brave women’ that ‘capture female strength and resilience’. This book has completely captured my attention. Besides the usual ‘have your say’ section where readers write in to express their views, and the jokes sections in this issue, the wide variety of articles kept me glued to the magazine. With the stories of the women, I am left amazed at their level of perseverance and determination, as well as their will to survive.

At the very bottom of the content page, there is a world map with coloured circles that contain page numbers. It also contains a caption that says ‘This month’s magazine brings you stories and ideas from all over’. This definitely got me intrigued as and excited. I felt excited to read about stories from all over the world. Instead of stories that come solely from America, where the head office is based. That is one thing about The Reader’s Digest that I like. It has a wide variety of stories, and every month, they have a main theme or main topic. For example, the issue in February would be about love and touching love stories in conjunction with Valentines’ Day. This makes me feel that Reader’s Digest is a focused magazine. They have a target and they would work towards it. This then results in the creation of an organized magazine.

Another reason why I like this magazine would be because of the graphics and the pictures that come with every article. My favourite picture in this November issue would be the cover picture for the article titled ‘Hot.Thirsty.Lost.’ . It is an article about three women getting lost in a scorching hot desert, with no water, and temperatures that reached 52 degree Celsius. The cover picture shows a hand clutching onto a bottle of water that is half-empty. A burning and bright sun in the background, and a view of the landscape that consists of practically nothing except for rocks and occasionally some shriveled tress. With the bottle and the sun in focus, the emphasis on the threats that the women faced is greater. It causes a growing sense of anticipation in me as I wonder how these women managed to survive in the cruel desert.

‘A picture speaks a thousand words’. The half-empty bottle of water shows us the desperation these women must have felt. The burning Sun and the lack of any life show us the despair that they must have felt. This picture made me more interested in the article and more eager to read it.

I would definitely recommend the Reader’s Digest to others to read as it is not only educational, but it is also full of interesting current affairs.