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May 9, 2001

How to share and economize at the same time

The Reader's Digest to me is like an old friend who's gotten really predictable, perhaps just a bit boring, but is still fun to have around. It was the Reader's Digest I was reading on my bunk in the barracks at Fort Devens, Mass. (March 1952) when I learned about the first American who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. He was followed by hundreds of thousands. He died at Fort Devens, of course. Worldwide millions died before that epidemic ended.

That was enough to give me cold chills on a warm day.

DeWitt Wallace, who started the magazine (figuratively) with a pencil, a pair of scissors and a comfortable chair in the New York Public Library, wanted his magazine to carry articles "of lasting interest." A 1939 Digest article which I happened to pick up and read in 1956 was interesting while demonstrating the hazards involved in predicting the future. The author, an intelligent and reasonable man, used many facts obvious in 1939 to warn of (my paraphrase) Ten Million Empty Classroom Seats in 1960. Of course, by 1956 it was obvious the problem in 1960 would not be empty classrooms, but the postwar baby boom and its impact on the nation's classrooms, which were being jammed with the children of veterans. For example, Laguna Salada's school population peaked with more than 10,000 kids in 15 schools.

I hadn't subscribed to the Digest in many years when my mother died. I attempted to transfer her subscription to my home. Easier said than done, but after several attempts over the course of months I finally succeeded. Too well, in fact. For awhile I received two per month. After I got back into the habit of reading the Digest, it occurred to me other Pacificans should also have the opportunity to read it, so I gave a subscription to the Pacifica Library.

The Digest has gotten overly clever with its subscription sales gimmicks, and earlier this year I decided not to renew my subscription because they wanted me to pay the full rate, now in the $25 range. It turned out, though, to be no problem renewing my gift subscription for the library for under $14. Now I just take copies of my gift out of the library to read. I never did have the heart to throw away old copies. Now I don't have to. I just return them for someone else to enjoy.

You might want to try the same idea. If there's a magazine you'd like to read regularly and the library doesn't already take it, check with the librarian. If they have the room and would like to start stocking it, order it as your gift. Take it off your income tax as a donation, enjoy the pleasure of reading it regularly, and you'll be sharing it with your neighbors as well.

Unfortunately, these days our libraries have to evaluate each potential gift subscription. Pacifica's branches are overcrowded. There's not enough space for all the books, magazines, videos, audio tapes, and reference materials we should have in our libraries. That's why it's hoped we can triple library space in Pacifica, to about 30,000 square feet in a new building.

DeWitt Wallace, who made use of the resources of the New York Public Library to create one of the world's most profitable and enjoyable magazines, generously donated millions of dollars to that great library. He's a model for library users even today. Libraries are a resource for rich and poor alike. In Wallace's case, the library helped make him very rich indeed.

Paul Azevedo's e-mail address is thereactor2@earthlink.net

 
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