This is the start of a series, focusing on what brings joy to my life. Small acts of kindness, objects and things, places, and surprises—all are destined to be enjoyed in some manner, so it’s my hope that these spark inspiration to find and celebrate what you love as well.

Flipping through a magazine provides a similar sensation to the act of flipping a page in a book or finding a lovely dress or eating a nourishing meal. The photos, format, and text—the smell—all enrapture me in a mindful trance of taking in what’s on the page.

When I was younger, and much less knowledgeable about the abundance of magazines beyond bookstore shelves, I flipped through your usual Vogue and Marie Claire magazines. I wasn’t their target audience being a teenager with little money, but that didn’t stop me. My senses were always ambushed by fluorescent lighting reflecting off the magazines and the artificial perfume samples in the advertisements. Yet, I was still enamored with them anyway.

It took a really long time to understand exactly what I was looking for. Today, I shudder at the thought of such terrible sensory overload.

Decades later, I still find an excitement stirring in my chest as my hand touches various magazines on display wherever I can find them–mostly at Barnes and Noble, a grocery store, or even my local library. I touch each one that catches my eye, my breath hitching at stumbling upon a new or rare magazine. I thumb through everything, making quick study of those three sacred elements: photos, format, text.

What is the magazine about? Do I like the pictures? Is the format and layout visually appealing? Cost doesn’t matter. I am likely to find the imported or no-advertisement magazines to cost much higher quality, and they are well beyond your standard $5.99 or $7.99. I have nothing against advertisements if they are done well, but generally, I find the magazines that are quite steep in price to have what it is I’m looking for.

I also purchase Japanese magazines as I study the language and love the practical information found between the pages. I’ll purchase a magazine aimed at housewives or working women. I’ll purchase magazines aimed at living a simple life or improving your cooking. I’ll also purchase the occasional Japanese fashion magazine. Recently, I’ve been buying Hiragana Times, a magazine written in both English and Japanese. It’s aimed at learners like myself. I get practice reading the language while learning about the culture and global connections Japan makes.

Magazines are practical because they offer enough for a short session of reading. Like a short story, they don’t require hours of time that sometimes we don’t have (even if we would like that). On busy days, if I can read the entire magazine or an article that caught my eye, I feel a sense of completion that doesn’t always come even if you reach the end of a chapter in a book.

Physical magazines will forever hold a place in my life. I did try the electronic versions, but I lost my focus and the sensation that a physical one can bring. And so I purchase physical issues of my favorite magazines and take my time reviewing them–not just for their content, but their typography and their pictures and their format. Magazines are not just functional for their content; they are bit like art to me. I will revisit them time and time again and still look forward to the next issue.

They are simply delightful in the quiet hours of the morning or in the afternoon with a cup of tea. They provide an opportunity to step away from the noise and get lost at least for a brief moment in their words and pictures.