Is there nothing new under the sun?
After subscribing to PEOPLE since my teen years, I recently cancelled my subscription and don't miss it at all. For one thing, for the past year I subscribed to TIME and Entertainment Weekly as well and discovered that all three cover exactly the same entertainment and human interest information. How many articles can one read about Jennifer Aninston or Reese Witherspoon? One is enough for me per film. For another, I got bored with the endless stream of human interest stories. The true crime stories are often interesting, but many tell exactly the same story: of a woman or child in peril, and how they came through it. I'm certainly not mocking what those featured have been through, but the lack of variety in these stories began to bore me.

One thing the magazine does well is chronicle the lives of Hollywood stars. I always enjoyed their coverage of weddings, divorces, births, and deaths. (The Passages page was always my favorite.) No other magazine I've read does that quite as well. I also liked the star tracks section at the beginning and got a kick out of the Mailbag page. Some of the strangest things I've ever read have come from that page.

Brain fluff, but good brain fluff
"People" is my guilty pleasure, a rather gossipy magazine that chronicles celebrities and the various stuff that happens to them -- but it also does delightful pieces that are genuinely heartwarming, and reviews for books, movies, CDs, etc by people who actually seem to like the material.

People usually starts with several pages of color photos of celebrities, both in glitz and sweatpants (I'm thinking of one horrible Julia Robert picture). These are usually pretty entertaining, ranging from playful to "eww, look at that." Then we get reviews of books and movies and music, where the reviewers often seem to acknowledge that "different" does not mean "bad."

Then we get to the Big Stories. Usually there are more than one of these per magazine, stretching over three pages at minimum. These can either be celebrity stories (usually pretty gushing) or stories about... well, real people, ranging from heroic rescues to "where are the celebrities of the past?" to medical breakthroughs.

Then come smaller stories: A little boy who inexplicably sets off store alarms. A nun who used to be a Hollywood actress (and was once involved with Elvis). Someone who makes anti-man shirts. There is a crossword puzzle, the fashion gaffe of the week (and often two people who have eerily similar outfits) and a final page of excerpts from celebrity interviews.

It all sounds pretty bad, right? Wrong, though People sometimes delves a little too deep and tells us a little more than we want to know, they do so with the same sort of gleeful enjoyment that we all, deep down, have. We want to hear the juicy details of X and Y's divorce, and we want to dream about wearing Z's wedding dress (even though deep down we know the marriage will last as long as her LAST one)

Do they overstep the boundaries sometimes? Yes, but they make up for that with the real life stories of people who have succeeded. I find that far more engaging than X and Y's divorce, and that is why I buy the magazine.

So yes, I'd advise getting this magazine if you enjoy sneering at celebrities, reading about the "Goat that saved my life," and watching David Duchovny get carted around on the handlebars of a nun's bike.

I'm a People Person
This magazine has had such a tremendous influence on my life. I know that a lot of readers get this subscription because they think of People Magazine as just "Fluff," but if you are looking for inspiration, the pages of People are loaded with it.

For example, several years ago, reading about Tony Robbins in People inspired me to investigate what he was all about. That led to my buying one of his books, then a set of motivational tapes, and ultimately I went to one of his live seminars and WALKED ON FIRE! That experience has led me to a personal understanding that I can do ANYTHING that I set my mind to. All because I read about Tony in People.

Another great example is Robert Kyosaki -- I read a profile on Robert which talked about his Rich Dad Poor Dad book, which prompted me to get a copy of the tape set. I drove around listening to those tapes in my car for months -- and then next thing I knew, I made an offer on a house, got it accepted, and suddenly, just a few months later, I went from being a renter to a home-owner. My own personal American Dream story, straight from the pages of People.

And lastly -- perhaps most importantly -- I read a small story about a new system for increasing intimacy and passion for couples. I followed up by buying a copy of the "New Sex Now" dvd right here on amazon, and before I knew what had happened, suddenly my lovelife went from ho-hum to humming on all cylinders. I started dating a woman with whom I shared some major chemistry, and soon I turned her onto the experience -- it ignited passion in us both that we had never known before, and intimacy that was unparalleled. Now, a few years later, she's my wife. Talk about fulfillment! I connected with the love of my life because of an article I read in People.

Granted, all of the foregoing is not to say that there's not a great deal of very light entertaining reading and pictures in People, for those who want to just veg out and pass the time idly. But for those who are looking to improve themselves, for those who are looking to suck the juice out of every drop of life, People magazine can be the stuff which makes dreamers out of work-a-day slobs by providing pictures and profiles of the people who inspire us to be more than what we are. How much more could you want from a magazine?