Archives for December 20th, 2006

“Za odrasle”: My two favorite words in the Slovenian language.

A while back, Brian uncovered this interesting site: Distriest. It’s a Sežana-based company that offers subscriptions to foreign magazines at suspiciously reasonable prices. They currently boast a respectable 656 available titles from nine foreign countries, including the States. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but it is when you realize how difficult getting your hands on foreign publications in Slovenia can be sometimes.

Take, for example, a subscription to the German magazine Schöner Wohnen. The first thing you’ll notice on their subscription page is that there’s no option to have it delivered to Slovenia. That’s because they only deliver within Germany. Distriest, in the meantime, offers it for an annual subscription price of 50 euros, which is just five euros over the newsstand price. That seems quite reasonable.

(In case any of you are wondering, this isn’t a paid advertisement or anything. I’m not nearly as financially astute as other bloggers, although I wish I was.)

And, to be honest, some deals are crap: A year’s subscription to The Guardian Weekly is ten euros more expensive if you order it at Distriest.

I currently have subscriptions to three U.S. magazines, and I’ve had trouble with them all from the beginning. The absolute worst of the bunch is The New Yorker. I pay twice the price to get it here, and am rewarded with upwards of a month’s delay. (See? I told you I wasn’t financially astute.)

What usually happens is that I get two (sometimes three) magazines on the same day. For example, last week I got three November issues simultaneously. You know that saying about nothing being older than yesterday’s news? Well, it’s true. Try reading a column speculating on the midterm elections when you already know how they turned out. It ain’t much fun, I promise.

I’ve complained a few times, but to no avail, and right now I really don’t have the energy to press the matter. I will, though.

Unfortunately for me, Distriest doesn’t offer The New Yorker. They do have erotic magazines, but somehow those aren’t quite the same.

(Thanks Brian!)