I was really glad that I'd stocked up on magazines before boarding a flight on Spirit Airlines back in August. Sadly, their inflight magazine has gone the way of complimentary beverages and free luggage checking. Not so for Delta's Sky. The slick 160-page October issue would rival any general interest publication out there. The magazine contradicts current niche publishing trends. Think about it, it's potentially in the hands of 5.2 million people each month during Delta flights. While it's impossible to be all things to all people, Sky takes a pretty good stab at it.

The launch issue of New England's newest regional pub dresses up nice. First, because any non-food mag that celebrates pie on the cover is a keeper. Yap all you want about a state's "distinctive cultural landscape," but if you don't understand the hierarchy of baked goods, I doubt you'll appreciate the virtue of making wine in a former dairy barn in Warren. Or that Grain Surfboards in York crafts its wooden boards by hand.

Wow, even the letters are interesting in Bookmarks. That tagline -- "For Everyone Who Hasn't Read Everything" -- seems to attract the best and the brightest. A previous column on "Books I Didn't Finish" generates a whole page of responses in the September-October issue (admittedly, I have to add myself to the list for "Love in the Time of Cholera.") And one reader even expands the dialogue to include "Books I Finished but Wish I Hadn't."

Back in 1978, a letter in Outside's first issue stated that the magazine was "dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and hardware of the outdoors." The magazine is driven by the search for innovative ways to connect people to the world outdoors. Those goals are definitely being met if the current issue is any indication. Even dedicated couch potatoes can delight in living vicariously through first-person accounts of such activities as rollerblading around Paris or biking in the Single Speed World Championships, a decidedly different mountain bike "race" where it's not unusual to see competitors …

That cover shot of Rocky on the July/August issue tells all you need to know: The Bark is about celebrating all matters canine. Of course, there's nothing unusual about a magazine devoted to a specific animal, or to any specialized topic for that matter. What makes The Bark somewhat rare, though, is that even those without a love for furry friends could find something compelling in these pages. Really.

It takes chutzpah to start a travel magazine in a recession. Afar is billed as a pub for "readers who are curious." I'm curious how it will survive, though its philosophy isn't geared to the country-club crowd. Forget a focus on comfy travel and 600-thread-count sheets; the goal is meaningful experiences. "We embrace what makes each culture distinct ... and discover insights about others - and ourselves." I read this in the Founder's Note, set in print so tiny it had to be glimpsed through an electron microscope.

Some mags just rely more on evergreen topics than others, as if it's hardwired into their DNA. Take the upper left blurb on the September cover of Glamour magazine: "3 Flat Belly Secrets: Tone Up Your Abs Without Working Out." That sounded vaguely familiar, so I visited Glamour.com and used the search function to seek out all references to "flat belly" and... well, there were 330 returns.

While many magazines are barely keeping their collective heads above water, Rodale's Women's Health is flourishing.

It's really quite stunning to contemplate the vast choices you're offered for $6.95 at an airport newsstand. Of course, when it comes to gravitas that separates a magazine from the pack, Harper's offers plenty. For starters, it's been in print since 1850 (the year Zachary Taylor suddenly died in office -- if that's any help, perspective-wise). And no one could teach either an American Lit or Journalism class that banned the works of Harper's writers.

For the eclectic among us, Smithsonian is a rare find. The pub began in 1970 and is only on its third editor! Founding editor Edward K. Thompson created a magazine for modern, well-rounded individuals -- and 39 years later, it's still going strong.