If you haven’t already got the theme that I am an avid reader, you will now. You could say I have a few addictions ranging from nail polish to cooking to finding things to read to broaden my knowledge. I have found that if I come across a great deal where I could only benefit from purchasing that I most likely will without regrets. For example, I bought an annual subscription of New York Review of Books for 80+% off. Then I got an annual Atlantic subscription from $11. This post is about another investment I made for relatively inexpensive: Lapham’s Quarterly.

Unlike the other items that I listed above, Lapham’s is actually not a magazine, but in reality is a book. Professionally covered, but soft-bound, it has the thickness of a book and basic layout of a non-fiction novel. The premise is fairly simplistic: it’s a quarterly volume (i.e. Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer) and each quarter has a theme to it (i.e. Science, Youth, Revolutions). Essentially, it is a compilation of excerpts and short non-fictional recounts from famous individuals over the course of time all pertaining to the one theme. Moreover, it is broken up into chapters, anywhere from 3-5, that are sorts of sub-genres. When I got the offer to purchase  this, I didn’t quite know what Lapham’s Quarterly was so I did some investigation, but even the descriptions online weren’t very descriptive. So, obviously, I just made the purchase so that I could really see what all this was about. This post will not only be about the Summer 2014 edition of Youth, but also a review of the general layout of Lapham’s Quarterly since I have found not many people reviewed it (or maybe I was too interested in purchasing it, I didn’t look too hard).

As I said, the Summer 2014 issue of Lapham’s is Youth. I really enjoyed this issue much more than the Revolutions issue so I’m glad I’m reviewing this one. This issue was divided into three chapters: Salad Days, Growing Pains, and Coming of Age. Splitting the Issue in this manner made sense to me, and the selections per chapter was clear and made even further sense. Each selection is 1-4 pages, sometimes even a poem; each is dated with its location in addition to a thematic statement as its title. A box is found at the end of each selection giving the name of the author as well as the purpose of the author for writing the piece. There are many pictures that accompany each selection, but they have absolutely nothing to do with the written selection. I enjoy the pictures whether they are paintings, photography, or any work of art. However, they can get distracting when one is reading the selection. I especially hate if the selection is from BC and the photo is of Katy Perry. It’s beyond silly when things don’t align well. Maybe it’s for a juxtaposition, but I would rather have a picture have a similar theme to the written selection rather than a complete contrast.

Commonly in any type of magazine that I have read: Smithsonian, New Yorker, Atlantic, the editors will embed and enlarge a quote from the text to emphasize a point. In Lapham’s, there will be quotes embedded in the text in translucent orange text boxes that are not found within the text, but are similar in subject manner from another author or famous individual. Similar to the pictures, the quotes can be distractions and tear the reader away from the piece. Usually these are fun to read and look at, but again can be distracting.

On a more positive note, reading the pieces that are in no chronological order is rather interesting. The switching in times could be challenging to some readers, but to others it’s interesting to show the differences and similarities between times and places. Reading a piece from the 15th Century to one written in the past few years and how the authors are exploring the same issues pertaining to Youth is rather interesting. Moreover, the changes in places is eye opening to see the similarities in authors from different areas of the World.

I think the next installment I receive, I will do a more thorough review of the topics that are discussed and the authors and texts which are selected for the piece. But for now, I think this was just more of an introduction to another piece of knowledge that is out there that is readily accessible and affordable for individuals to purchase. It’s a great source of information and honestly would take someone perhaps a lifetime to compile by one’s self. But having someone do it for you is awesome, and a great resource to have on hand. Some selections are worth thoroughly reading, and others are for skimming or just looking at the pictures. It’s still worthwhile to delve into and see what you can get out of it.