Kinda takes the fun out of it I find. I much prefer the almost mad scientist approach of trying different settings and hoping it works than reading up on how to take mega shots using equipment 5-times over budget and 10x overkill for the general user. Also I think itd end up frustrating me when I read about other peoples successes at different things.

I strongly feel that I will always be an amateur in the true sense of the word, that I am "One who loves..." photography. Starting down the route of reading magazines I think will make things just a bit too clinical for me. Much the same as I prefer the process of seeing a new species in the wild, photographing it, and IDing it at home at my leisure, than doing a short course where a few dozen species are crammed down my throat. I pretty much stopped diving a year after I started to get diver magazines, the sense of self discovery of different things had just dissolved after reading about them instead.

Ive been a subscriber to Digital Camera magazine