One of the most popular magazines in the US is People magazine. If you are seriously considering a People magazine subscription you will find here some interesting reviews.

People magazine is the most wildly, consistently successful magazine in history (not to mention the most stolen from lunchrooms) and it's avidly read by half the population of America each year. Why? The people at People know what you want to read: the absolute latest, impossible-to-get dish on celebrity scandals (a $3-million-a-year fact-checking department keeps it real); definitive tribute issues; snappy wrap-ups on the whereabouts of yesterday's stars and the current Most Beautiful People; riveting stories of real folks caught up in the day's biggest news, health, and crime stories; and quick picks and pans on what's up in entertainment. And after years of black-and-white drabness, the magazine has fully mastered the art of flashy, full-colour photography. The editorial focus of people  magazine is on the compelling personalities of today both famous and infamous, ordinary and extraordinary. It is a guide to who and what are hot in the arts, science, business, politics, television, movies, books, music and sports. I renew my people magazine subscription for 2 years.

People magazine usually starts with several pages of colour photos of celebrities, both in glitz and sweatpants (I'm thinking of one horrible Julia Robert picture). These are usually pretty entertaining, ranging from playful to "eww, look at that." Then we get reviews of books and movies and music, where the reviewers often seem to acknowledge that "different" does not mean "bad."

Then we get to the Big Stories. Usually there are more than one of these per magazine, stretching over three pages at minimum. These can either be celebrity stories (usually pretty gushing) or stories about... well, real people, ranging from heroic rescues to "where are the celebrities of the past?" to medical breakthroughs. People magazine is chock-full of gossipy stories like this.

Then come smaller stories in people magazine: A little boy who inexplicably sets off store alarms. A nun who used to be a Hollywood actress (and was once involved with Elvis). Someone who makes anti-man shirts. There is a crossword puzzle, the fashion gaffe of the week (and often two people who have eerily similar outfits) and a final page of excerpts from celebrity interviews.

It all sounds pretty bad, right? Wrong, though People magazine sometimes delves a little too deep and tells us a little more than we want to know, they do so with the same sort of gleeful enjoyment that we all, deep down, have. We want to hear the juicy details of X and Y's divorce, and we want to dream about wearing Z's wedding dress (even though deep down we know the marriage will last as long as her LAST one).

Do they overstep the boundaries sometimes? Yes, but they make up for that with the real life stories of people who have succeeded. I find that far more engaging than X and Y's divorce, and that is why I have bought a people magazine subscription.

So yes, I'd advise you to subscribe to people magazine if you enjoy sneering at celebrities, reading about the "Goat that saved my life," and watching David Duchovny get carted around on the handlebars of a nun's bike.