Here are a few of my favourite zines

[lissajous]

"When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm in a part of the UK other than the one I live in."

So I've always been a huge fan of magazines. I think a big part of this is the sheer range of subjects they cover. It does my soul good to know that someone out there is leafing through the latest issue of Sea Angler. Unfortunately the exodus of Eason from the motherland has made it harder for me to pick up my favourite publications when the mood strikes. Fortunately tobli and I do find ourselves in other parts of the UK (and the "other place") on occasion and while there it's become a tradition for me to stock up on zines. Here are a few of my favourites:

Guitar World:

In my younger and more vulnerable years I used to acquire a lot of guitar tablature. The trouble was that whether these were free online tabs from sites like Ultimate Guitar or "proper" ones from actual licensed books of tablature they were generally pretty crap. Guitar World was the first time I'd seen tabs that sounded close to the original recording and were written idiomatically. I bought my first issue in July 2007 and have continued to do so on and off since. Each issue has 4-5 tabs from different artists and they occasionally publish Guitar Legends which focuses on a single artist.

BBC Good Food:

Leaving aside the fact that you need to re-mortgage your house to afford it, BBC Good Food has also earned its place among the favourite zines. In all honesty I think the recipes sometimes look better than they taste, but this magazine is really more about selling you a lifestyle than making you a fantastic home cook. There's just something cosy and friendly about sitting down to flick through its glossy pages.

Practical Electronics:

The most recent addition to the favourite zine family. There's plenty of electronics-related info on the net but it's a bit like trying to learn programming from a Udemy course (you get stuck in tutorial hell.) The projects and articles in Practical Electronics really help bridge the gap between individual circuit "building blocks" like current mirrors and push-pull outputs and complete circuits like power amplifiers. They also have a PCB Service where you can order PCBs for projects published in past and future issues.

Anyway that's the end, get this down ye.