I travel a lot on planes. When on the airport or in the plane, working on the laptop is not always my favorite activity, so for times when I get fed up with Eclipse, Mail.App or any other computer’ish something, I always have a stack of magazines with me. Titles that are always in my handbag are Esquire and Economist.

I have a subscription to the Dutch Esquire and also to the Economist. I value the Economist highly as it brings me up-to-date on all major issues happening everywhere. I basically serves as replacement for my television set (I don’t have one) and my newspaper (don’t have one either). Even I had ones of those, I probably wouldn’t be able to use / read it much, because I’m hardly ever at home.

Anyway, when traveling to Holland last weekend, at Paris CDG airport I came across Monocle. It was new to me, and as a regular visitor to the book shops on the airport, that’s quite something. I bought a copy (the November issue) and was pleasantly surprised by the content. Sometimes I find the Economist a little too heavy a read (too much on the business, too little lifestyle) and from the Esquire, it’s a little bit the other way around: too much lifestyle and no ‘useful’ information ;-).

Until now, I find Monocle to be a good cross-over between Economist and Esquire. Gents@Monocle: I you don’t like this comparison, let me know if you have something better