Time is money. Review on Time Magazine

As a student in a University that boasted of a seven-floor library, I spent a lot of time there. This was mainly to do some work and study, but other factors that were an added bonus included the cute Erasmus exchange students and (lest I get carried away) the vast collection of international magazines. It was there that my love affair with the Time magazine started. I didn't have time to watch the news on the Telly, and so my weekly scan of Time ensured that I sounded intelligent when trying to chat up a cute guy at the union!!

Today, I am happily married and don’t need to chat up cute foreigners, but continue to find that Time is a source of intelligent and interesting articles relating to current affairs. The format is such that they have one main cover story and various regular features such as political news, an economic/financial review, a science related article, review of arts, music and culture and a sports related article.

I like the fact that I don’t have to worry about understanding the situation and then analyzing it. In every article there are these little boxes (in different colours to stand out from the main bit) with juicy extras. E.g, recently there was an article about the Roadmap to Peace (RTP) in the Middle East and an ancillary one that talked about Abu Mazer’s (also known as Mahmoud Abbas) relationship with Yasser Arafat and how that would affect the RTP. It contained intricate details of incidents that led up to the falling out of the two once-dear friends. That just helped set the scene for me to get a better understanding of the situation. Newspapers just don’t seem to do that! And for me, that level of detail and analysis was invaluable.

The Time edition I subscribe to is the European one and that’s an added bonus as although I get a roundup of world events, the focus is more on pan-European issues. Whether UK should join the Euro is now the question on every European’s lips and trust Time to have that as its cover story for the next week’s edition.

All in all it’s has a well-rounded content and I can rely on it for balanced opinions on current issues. I try and read most of the articles at home, but also carry a copy with me for when I use public transport. It is a useful way to while away time when the train is late - which if you live in UK - is a fact rather than exception.