Since I subscribe to a variety of magazines and journals, I get a wildly diverse range of junk mail. Some assume I’m Catholic, others than I’m Jewish, some that I’m a Democrat, others that I’m a Republican or Libertarian or have signed on with the Constitution Party.
One of the strangest ever came today: an invitation to join insightoutbooks, which, as it turns out, is a gay book club, featuring such classics as “Farm Boys” and “Queer Street,” “Frat Sex” and “Full Body Contact,” “Rare Flesh” and “The Male Ideal,” “The Da Vinci Code” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” Say what? I wonder if that will be emblazoned on the next edition of Harry Potter: “A Selection of the insightoutbooks Book Club.” Who has control over what bookclub picks up what books?
A curiosity: In the midst of the guides to gay sex and picture books of naked athletes is a two-page spread featuring books about stars. What’s striking here is that a number of these are about women: A book about Judy Garland, a Barbra Streisand Scrapbook, and elsewhere a CD of Cher’s best. What is it, I wonder, that makes these women particularly interesting to gay male readers?
The club offers a tote bag if I buy four books for a dollar each ?Eso that I can “go gay-ly everywhere.” Could I ever use a tote bag, but I think I’ll give the club a pass.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
