I've always loved magazines. I like to see what people are interested. I like a little escape. I like pretty things. I like inspiration.

My dAd has an endless supply of them. It's because of the antique store. He likes to see what's hot each season and often he decorates accordingly. I love to thumb through these when I am at home. My old roommate S. subscribed to a couple of different food/cooking magazines and I often flipped through this for new dishes, things to try and food to dream about. In the States I often flip through magazines at the gym, in line at the grocery store and at the dentist's/doctor's office.

Needless to say my access to magazines in Bulgaria is different. There are plenty of magazines but they take more time and effort to read. There are lots of word that I don't know but I still like to look at the pictures.

I wrote a post about this about a year ago (<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/02/27/magazines-abroad/" target="_blank">Magazines Abroad</a>) and then in the last year there've been a slew of new digital magazines. I guess that with the economic crisis some print magazines closed and now these new digital magazines are filling this void. Pretty cool.

Among my favorites are <a href="http://matchbookmag.com/" target="_blank">Matchbook</a>, <a href="http://www.ruemag.com/" target="_blank">Rue</a>, <a href="http://lonnymag.com" target="_blank">Looney</a> and <a href="http://www.offswitchmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Off Switch</a>. <a href="http://www.theeverygirl.com/" target="_blank">Everygirl</a> has been discussed on a few fashion blogs that follow but their first issue isn't due out February 2012. On a whole I think that these magazines are clever, well put together and fairly well written. Some of the pieces could use a little editing or cutting that I assume a piece would receive if the magazine were in print. Here's what I especially like: the digital magazines are relatively easy to flip through and they fill a need in my life--mindless escape, inspiration and novelty.

I was thrilled when Christina Nigohosian the journalist who <a href="http://sofialive.bg/heroes/sugrajdanin/145-karolin-ejmi.html" target="_blank">interviewed me for Sofia Live</a> wrote to me this week to tell me about her new project: <a href="http://antre.bg/" target="_blank">Antre (<strong></strong>Антре)</a> a digital lifestyle magazine that she's publishing in Bulgarian!! The magazine is beautiful and rivals any of those English language magazines that I mentioned above in terms of visual appeal, layout and typography.

Mind you my Bulgarian isn't great but I enjoyed reading/browsing/looking at this magazine. And I am looking forward to to the next issue. Maybe if I keep reading thing up I'll eventually learn Bulgarian.