Deja VUU World?

It is not nice to put one's pet peeves out there in the blogosphere without a little sugar attached.

So, let me begin by saying that I am more attached to our denomination's publication UU World than I have ever been. I like the minimal gloss. I like the various features. I am always interested in the cover story. I love the usual suspects who contribute. In fact, it is probably all these positves that have led me to my pet peeve. Which is...

The reprints. I am so over the reprints, the "adapted from"s, and the "excerpted with permission"s. Over them!

The magazine is important. It is worth it. As a membership and outreach minister, I frequently refer newcomers to UUWorld. Can we please fund it enough so they can get fresh writing that can be found ONLY in the magazine?

I know this seems petty, but there is a reason for my pricklyness. I am one of UU publishing's best customers. I do the buying for our extensive church bookstore and read half of it myself. Because of the abundance of reprints in this issue, I had already read three of the pieces in their original format. This caused the much-awaited magazine to be anticlimactic.

I know the why of the reprints: showcasing some of the best UU writing, giving exposure to the book publishing arm, high quality with less money. But I also know that there are hundreds of provocative UU writers out there and I would love to read their thoughts. (Note: I have 20 UU blogs I read regularly and that is only scratching the surface of UU writing. The writers are out there!)

So the solution is simple. You can fix this for me.

Buy more UU books so they don't have to be pushed in the magazine, and support more money for the magazine so they too can have more fresh and thought-provoking pieces that are original to UUWorld. So fair! So simple!

Oh, well. I can dream, can't I?

grumbling transmission ends here. please attacketh not in comments.