Stack: September

This month's Stack is Ladybeard, (this one, not this one), a feminist magazine with themed issues. This issue is focused on the mind.

To be honest, I held off on starting this for a while. It's a massive magazine and the very first article, 'Losing My Mind', is a series of short personal reflections about mental breakdowns. The thought of ploughing through page after page of other people's mental health problems seemed like more a challenge than I wanted right now. In the end I did overcome my trepidation and sit down with it, and I was glad I did. It wasn't heavy-going at all – the articles are relatively short, (I could have done with some of them being longer), and wildly varied. There is some serious content, (institutional racism in mental health treatment, eating disorders, the use of psychiatry for political ends), but there's plenty of cheerful oddities mixed in as well, (art, transhumanism, twins, the history of emotions, LSD). The writing's good, the design is great, the content is interesting. It's just a shame it weighs so much – it was a nightmare to carry around for a week!

Would I buy it again? Maybe? It seems to be priced at £6.50, which is shockingly low considering how big and beautiful it is. I guess it would probably all depend on the theme.

Stack: August

(I skipped July! I'll write something for it when I have more time.)

Judging by this cover design, what would you say this magazine is about? Boats? Travel? Exploration? You're wrong. It's about coffee. It's a surprisingly thick magazine about coffee.

August's Stack is Drift, each issue of which focuses on a different city and the coffee culture there. This issue is set in Stockholm. I made fun of this magazine when I first opened it up. It's so thick and the idea that this weighty tome was just about coffee in Stockholm seemed ridiculous to me. But then I started reading it and it was really fun.

Part of it is just that I love hearing about other people's niche interests. But part of it is that this magazine uses coffee as a starting point to talk about a place. There are interviews with baristas, cafe owners and coffee roasters, but there are also articles delving into topics such as the recent influx of refugees into Sweden, Swedish design, parental leave and the generational divide. Coffee acts as the connection between all of this, a common thread that the writers continually returns to. It's weird and interesting and not something I'd ever buy myself – everything I want from Stack deliveries.

Would I buy it again? I am not enough of a coffee connoisseur to buy this again, but I'm glad I had the chance to read it!

Stack: June

June's Stack delivery isn't a magazine; it's Amuseum! Hilarious.

I am slightly at a loss as to how to describe this one, (this is starting to feel like a running theme with this year's selection), but I suppose that a museum isn't a bad comparison. It's a selection of essays and articles that are based around objects: lightbulbs; IKEA bags; Vitsœ furniture; Kibbo Kift totems. It's energetic and odd – bouncing from one subject to the next without anything to connect them. The letter from Stack that accompanied it described it as "ideal toilet reading", which is very accurate. You can drop in and out easily, the writing is very accessible, and you'll probably learn something along the way.

Somehow I feel like I'm damning it with faint praise though. While I liked it, I did not love it, and I think the main problem was that it felt very lightweight after last month's New Philosopher. Had it arrived after January's delivery of The Lifted Brow I might have enjoyed it a lot more.

Would I buy it again? Maybe? Not as a regular thing, but maybe if there was an issue with something particularly interesting in?

Stack: May

I loved this month's delivery! It was a magazine called New Philosopher, which is released quarterly with each issue focused on a different topic. This issue is about education, but previous issues have included health, travel, technology, fame and work to name just a few. There's no overarching thesis to an issue – just different writers exploring the topic, interspersed with quotes and excerpts from the works of famous philosophers and theorists.

If I had to make a complaint it would be that the writing is fairly shallow; two or three pages just don't provide enough space to really dig deeply into a topic. I don't really think that's the aim of New Philosopher though. It feels more like it's offering food for thought, not making any pronouncements on its subjects. Overall it was such a fun, accessible read and it left me wanting more!

Would I buy it again? Yes!

Stack: April

April's Stack delivery was a bit of a struggle for me. The magazing was PYLOT, which is "a bi-annual, all-analogue, fashion and photography magazine". This statement actualy comes from their website though, the magazine itself doesn't really tell you what it's about. When asked what I was reading my description was "a fashion magazine for people who want you to know that they're too cool for fashion", a description that I stand by.

The mixture of fashion, art and photography is interesting – it includes interviews with cosmetics company founder Bobbi Brown and photographer Arthur Tress – and it has a policy of not digitally retouching models. Still, it all comes across as very considered and manufactured rather than conveying any real enthusiasm for its subject matter. Also all of the clothes are hideous, but I don't really read high-end fashion magazines so maybe that's normal.

Would I buy it again? No. It's not smart enough to be interesting and the clothes aren't pretty enough for someone with no interest in fashion.

Dragon on Cloud, aka Crushing Disappointment

While clearing out the office my boss found this:

It's a kit to make a wooden dragon automaton! Awesome! I took it home intending to make it over the weekend, rather optimistically perhaps, considering that the instructions are only in Chinese.

Except that 18 of the 64 pieces are missing. (The kit was open when my boss found it.)

I'm going to double-check the office tomorrow, but I'm not very confident that I'll find anything further. I had a quick look online and the only seller I could find that stocked this kit was based in Taiwan and charged a lot for international shipping. I have found out that a paper version of this kit was produced as well, although this seems to be sold out. How disappointing!

Stack: March

This is more like it! After a weak start Stack has now delivered The Gourmand, which was excellent

Stack held its first award ceremony in December and they actually awarded The Gourmand "Magazing of the Year" so it comes well-recommended! It's a gorgeous item – really hefty with great colour photography and thick, glossy paper. According to The Gourmand's website it's printed by specialist art book printers and I can believe it.

And the contents are fun. The articles cover all sorts of topics related, even if only tangentially, to food. Amongst other things there's a history of Weight Watchers, jewellery inspired by fruit and vegetables, an article about Alexandre Dumas's cookbook and an interview with a DJ-turned-sake brewer. At the end of the magazine are recipes related to the articles, so you can read about Vincent Price's dinner parties and then flick to the back for his recipe for stuffed frankfurters. The quality of the writing does let it down in a couple of places, (the Weight Watchers article is a particularly great example of why you souldn't use five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do), but overall this was so much fun to read. 

Would I buy it again? Yes, I think I might. It's expensive – £12 an issue – but it's such a high-quality product that I don't really begrudge the price tag.