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Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 8:51 AM

I was flicking through a trade mag this morning, as usual from the back cover to the front, and this magazine had printed on the back cover an index/contents called:

"Reading from the back" - 'Components in Electronics'.

So this made me wonder how many of you read or flick through a magazine from the back to the front??

AND is it anything to do with me being left handed?

Please re-assure me that I'm not the only one who reads backwards!!!

John.

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#1

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 8:58 AM

I usually read 'em upside down reflected in a mirror .

Nah, not really..I usually flick through from the front looking for intersting articles whilst having my morning tea and biscuits at 10:00.
The jobs tend to be at the back and I'm too lazy old to be thinking of new jobs.
Anything with a circuit diagram or some interesting looking mechanics usually catches my eye... Political Correctness means we no longer have ad's with scantilly clad ladies on the flimsies pretext .. (Or was it flimisly clad ladies on the scantest petext?)

Del

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 9:01 AM

Owww I dunno about that Del... just a few days ago a company was advertising toroidal transformers and the picture was errrrmmmm.... well... it was worth tearing out of the mag...

John.

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#3

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 7:19 PM

I'm right handed. I've always read from back to front. It makes the "continued" articles out of order, but I just remember the end and then read the start. I read books the usual way and the newspapers as well. I think it might be because the men's magazines like Argosy and Stag used to have the pinups in the back. That was very important to a twelve year old boy learning to read.

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#4

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 7:28 PM

How do I read a magazine? With my eyes, of course, and hopefully my brain.

I usually read front to back, I guess, because I like order. I hate it when an article begins on the the last page and continues on a previous page.

About the ladies, have you ever noticed that when one is holding the advertised product, she tends to hold it at chest level?

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#9
In reply to #4

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 3:17 AM

she tends to hold it at chest level.

This is just good lifting practice showing good safety conscious advertising .

Del

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#5

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 11:13 PM

I'm a back to front Right hander. So you are not alone.

Often the "last word" is better than the usual "word from the publisher, \" that is up front.

Plus I do a Scan of the ad's in the back to see whats "hot" vs what is no longer hot.

milo

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#6

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 11:51 PM

I read back to front just assumed it was because I was left handed

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#7

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/25/2008 11:53 PM

Start at the back, of course; that's where the good stuff resides; like my Dad always said;

How else can you capture a Booty if you don't attack from the back?

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#8

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 1:56 AM

You (we) will tend to read first where previous reading has brought greatest reward (as in pleasure principle). Handedness not a factor.

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#10

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 5:51 AM

I have always read a magazine first from the back to about halfway, then from the front to about halfway. My mother used to call me back hand luke because of this, and I always thought that I was the only one who read a magazine that way. It just go's to show that we must all be a bit backhanded? Spencer.

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#11

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 8:09 AM

Ambidextrous and read back to front. You not alone out there

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#12

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 8:16 AM

I'm left-handed but, when I pick up a magazine, I look at the front, then the back cover (sometimes the pictures there are fantastic), then I read from the front to the back.

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#13

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 8:48 AM

All picture based languages and languages without vowels are written right to left. Languages with vowels are written left to right. When you riffle through a magazine to look at pictures, the natural way to do it is from back to front. When you read the magazine's English language content, the natural way to do it is from front to back. Pictures and picture-based languages are processed mainly in the right brain and vowel containing languages are processed mainly in the left brain. When Greek had no vowels, it was written right to left. After vowels were added, it was written in boustrophedon style where every other line was in the opposite direction. This proved to be an evolution to the left to right style which feels best to the human brain when vowels are involved.

Quote from Wiki on Greek: "By then Greek was written left to right, but originally it had been written right to left (with asymmetrical characters flipped), and in-between written either way — or, most likely, in the so-called boustrophedon style, where successive lines alternate direction."

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#17
In reply to #13

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 8:25 AM

Chinese is written top to bottom.

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#21
In reply to #17

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 10:34 AM

... and right to left.

Nadeem

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#14

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 9:00 AM

Many countries normally write therefore read from what we consider back to front. I read magazines from back to front it seems more natural to me. Maybe it is just that I have traveled to so many countries I have picked up their habits.

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#15

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/26/2008 9:31 AM

Well that is fascinating.... it seems most do flick through from back to the front...

I guess it also depends on the magazine, if it were one I wanted to read almost every article I might read it from front to back...

One of the reasons why I asked this was because many years ago I was told by an advertising agency that adverts get a bigger reaction if they are on the right hand page, which would suggest that reading back to front is quite common!!

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#16

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 7:58 AM

I read from back too. I heard somewhere that means you're impatient, not left handed. I'm a right-trained lefty.

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#18

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 9:23 AM

arabic and Urdu are written from right to left.I guess persian too.

The cover page of books are on the opposite of say the "english" boooks.

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#22
In reply to #18

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 11:07 AM

You are right. Urdu, Farsi and Arabic are written from rigth to left.

Chiese is written from right to left and top to botom.

There is another langauge and it is not a dilect, It is PUNJABI which is the language of Punjab province in undivided India. After 1947 partition by those idiots and thieves, England, Punjab was divided in India and Pakistan. The same thing was done to Bengal divided in India and Pakistan. Now the Punjabi in Pakistan has a Urdu script and written from right to left like URDU and Punjabi in India has it's own script called GURU MUKHI which is very closed to Hindi script. The Punjabi in India is written in GURU MUKHI from left to right. The Bengali (Bangla) language kepy it's own script both in India and Pakistan.

By the way, Thai, Bengla, Hindi, Gurumukhi have the same origin and Thai is from Pali langauge fom South India. I can read and distinguish all these mentioned languages. (No Bragging)

Regards;

Nadeem

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#23
In reply to #22

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 11:09 AM

As you cross the Equator the letters go the other way across the page

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#24
In reply to #23

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 11:52 AM

Hey Del:

I always, I really mean always, enjoy your sharp and witty one liners. LOL

Regards;

Nadeem

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#25
In reply to #24

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 12:40 PM

Cheers

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#19

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 10:04 AM

No you are not alone. Count me in too.

My reasoning is that I just glance thru the back pages and ads and come to front to read more interesting articles later in details. Mostly, the ads are in the back so I get rid of them quickly. Yes, Del the Cat we are too old to look for new jobs so we are not interesting there any way. OLD? Talk about your self I just do not need a new job. I am happy with what I am doing and complete satisfaction in refineries uprades and other chemical and petrochemical projects.

I know many people have many reasons to read from the back but mine is to read with peace, the articles I want to read.

Regards;

Nadeem

05272008

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#20

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/27/2008 10:21 AM

Ha...just caught myself with an engineering mag...yup it was from back to front on first skim.

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#26

Re: Magazines - How do you read them?

05/28/2008 12:33 PM

Declaration of interest - I am right pawed. Because of the weight and size of a magazine I usually pick it up by the spine, in my left , as the spine is on the left. A moderately sized book , I will pick up by the opposite edge.

The mag. I then transfer to my right paw and use my left to control the rate of information flow, throwing the mag. open when an item of seeming interest registers.

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