Well, I don't read daily newspapers and seldom watch television. One reason is there are too many informations in the daily papers and I can't keep up with all the current events. So I gave up reading daily newspapers and sometimes I don't aware what's happening around where I live. Even watching 30 minutes of television evening news is difficult as I can't be at home at the fixed time to watch it. Most of my daily cores are happening out of my house, and I can't just come back home to watch news. When you are out somewhere in the city, television is not readily available to watch news.

I get current informations mostly by reading monthly and weekly magazines besides talking to friends and colleagues. Reading habits have been changed as to what I do and what my interests are at the time, and the following desciption is for the past several years.

Reader's Digest, Time, Newsweek, and U.S.News & World Report have been at my desk side since my high school days. I learned English as a second language back in Korea, and reading the mentioned magazines helped me enriched the English vocabularies as those contain diverse levels and interests of words. By the time I got into college, those became the source of informations rather than English wordbook, and I'm getting what's happening in America and the world. To know more about Asian stuff, Asiaweek is the source, and Life Magazine gives visual stuff.

I read der Spiegel, Bunte and Stern for German stuff, and Le Figaro, L'Express and Paris Match to catch up news in France. My reading capabilities in German and French became very powerful although I seldom write in those languages. Being an Asian immigrant in America, I wonder thesedays, wh I want to catch up news in Europe which is not directly related to me at all; I can't understand everything in the world. But I still read those as reading those became a habit.

Having been a mathematics and physics student, I read Scientific American, Science, Physcis Today, American Scientist, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope and Nature to converse with fellow students and professors, and still browse through as I feel comfortable with the technical terms, which is Greek to most people. As for the light reading in science and technology, Omni, Discover, Natural History, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science are recommended.

Computers have been my main interest for the past several years, and Dr. Dobb's Journal, Byte, Linux Journal, X Journal and UNIX World are a must to catch up technical news for UNIX programmers. There are more computer magazines which is full of advertisements, and I think those are just garbages. For Computer Graphics, IEEE Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics World, and 3D Artist are the magazines I really enjoy reading over and over again these days. Beautiful and innovative graphics and some source codes occupies my mind after reading the articles from those magazines. I want more of that kind of magazines, but those are the only ones available. Cadence and Cadalyst will definitely improve your AutoCAD knowledge and tips.

As for Mondo and WIRED, I doubt whether it's worth reading it. Anyway I read it as many people read it. People, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Interview are good for finding out people whose lifestyles are almost entirely different from mine.

Being a classical and instrumental music lover,I rely on Stereo Review and Audio to get the audio equipment knowledge to enjoy listening music. To find out how others live and have lived, Smithsonian, National Geographic Magazine and American Heritage are, I think, everyone's favorite. As for Asian-Americans in America, Transpacific seems OK even though I don't want to recommend it.

When I was a student, Business Week, Inc., Money and Fortune never caught my interest, but after getting a job I feel urged to read those. Once an architecure student for a while, Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, Progressive Architecture, Architecture and Domus were routine stuff and Interior Design, Cosmopolitan Home, House Beautiful for interior designs and I still read to see pictures in it and to dream about owning that kind of fancy house of my own when I can affort it in near future :)

Graphis and Communication Arts are for graphics designers, and Black Belt for the kung-fu enthusiasts.

Sin-Dong-A, Wolgan-Chosun, Wolgan-Chungang, ChangJag-gwa-BiPyeong, Mal and Saem-I-Gippun-Mul are monthly magazine in the Korean language dealing with social subjects in Korea and require you deep thinking after reading those. Gaek-Seok is for music, Konggan and Wolgan-Misul for arts and designs in Korea.

Bungei-Shunshu is for the Japanese language reader and recommended if you have good reading knowledge in Japanese. There are lots of good arts magazines in Japanese, but too expensive to buy, so I read occasionally. Also for the electronics technology, Japanese has the best sources.

There are dozens of arts magazines in Chinese, and I browse those for pictures, not for reading.

I used to subscribe some of those, but I don't buy any of the above magazines these days. Instead, I go to libraries to check out or to bookstores to browse while standing next to the bookstand. Thesedays my favorite bookstore is Boarder's where there is a cafe inside the bookstore. I order a cup of coffee and grab dozens of magazines to read while sipping a cup of coffee.

My readings are heavy in acquiring technical stuffs and almost none in realizing fellow people's stories. When I watch news or read newspapers, wars, killings, poverties and person's mishaps makes the headlines and makes up most of the news. Good and happy part of people's stories takes only small portion of the news. That's why I stopped reading newspapers and watching news quite a while ago. Whether I know about it or not, my daily life don't change and my idealogy is not influenced by it any more.

Disadvantage of not reading newspapers is not realizing for a year that local freeway speed limit became 65 MPH increased from 55 MPH. I could have saved several minutes of commuting time by driving a little bit faster in freeways. And other instances is when I had chances to be introduced to famous people who can go by their names only. I didn't know who they were until I was told their titles of position.

All the above readings helps me communicate efficiently with people I meet. (1-2-97)