Reader's Digest Association Inc, whose namesake magazine has been a staple of dentists' waiting-rooms for generations, has filed for bankruptcy.
If indeed this most widely-read magazine goes out of circulation, it will be mourned like an old friend albeit a much-maligned and much-neglected one as I haven't read a Reader's Digest for twenty years.
However, I used to read its German edition "Das Beste" in my youth and later subscribed to its English edition as my only 'literary' lifeline while living in remote parts of the world where the only other reading matter was the label on beer bottles.
The much-anticipated monthly arrival of the magazine and its bi-monthly companion, the condensed book, became a measure of time itself: usually, with half-a-dozen "Reader's Digest" and a couple of condensed books piling up on my bedside table, I somehow knew it was time to move on again!
