Average Rating: 
Rating:  - One of the best magazines out there
I've been a loyal subscriber to Esquire for five years or so. It's a great magazine that I really can't say enough about. Sure there are bad issues and some mundane articles, but overall the articles are interesting, the photos are great, the fiction that appears in it is first-rate. And it has something for all types of men, and even for women. This is one of the more important magazines of our times, one that I would recommend to anyone.
Rating:  - If only "Esq." would turn down the volume....
A great, general "men's interest" magazine. I appreciate learning all those things no one ever taught me but I wish I knew, such as the finer points of mixing various drinks, classic men's fashions, insights into women, and all sorts of other manly things. However. While it certainly grabs one's attention on the newsstand, the cover is a bit embarassing to hold in public--even "Playboy" is more discrete? And the general tone or attitude of almost all the writing is edgy, sarcastic, in-your-face. While amusing in small doses, it gets tiring quickly when it is the pervasive tone. Perhaps I've outgrown "Esq."?! Still, I like reading what "Esq." has to say, but the tone is getting in the way. Please turn down the volume.
Rating: - God bless Esquire.
God bless Esquire magazine. I first discovered this newsstand treasure in December 1999, with a naked Sharon Stone on the cover and the words "175 Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies." I wonder what these things are going to be, I thought sarcastically, figuring I'd be in for a typical, shallow Maxim-style feature on various sexual or seduction techniques. But no. Inside I found a feature with so much humor, intellect, maturity and immaturity that it made me an instant subscriber. Some entries: 1. Fall in love with an older woman. 2. Lose your virginity to an older woman. 3. Have your young and tender heart carved into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted and chewed by an older woman. 51. Catch a fish. 52. Read "Moby Dick." 106. Change diapers. 108. Call the person you think you've most wronged. Apologize. And many more ... I was hooked from the first three lines. Oh, and Sharon Stone? Her picture is in conjunction with her writing the classy Number 13, entitled "Shave a Woman's Legs." The semi-occasional, scantily-clad (or not clad at all; Italian actress Monica Bellucci appeared on the February 2001 cover wearing only 32 ounces of Iranian caviar) female will no doubt draw comparisons between Esquire and Maxim, or Playboy or Stuff or the like, since they appear in the mens' magazine section together. But there's a difference. Originally, I was going to say that Maxim and the others are magazines for men who like to think with their crotch (not that mags like this don't have their place), while Esquire is for men who like to think with their brain. However, some might argue that, on men, those two body parts are synonymous, so I'm going to say instead that Esquire is for men who think with their hearts. Really, how else can you describe a magazine that writes a long, scientifically accurate article devoted entirely to the human genome and then peppers the story with tastefully naked pictures of Heidi Klum, if for no other reason than to draw more attention to the issue of "Who Owns Your Body?" And then, in that very same issue, there contains a special section entitled, "What It Feels Like," featuring creative essays from people who have lost a hand to frostbite, been attacked by a swarm of killer bees, taken acid, suffered from amnesia, are paralyzed and even what it feels like to walk on the moon (written by Buzz Aldrin). Esquire is renowned for featuring some hard-hitting stories, too. One in-depth reporting job recounted a horrible fire at a Worchester warehouse that claimed several firefighters' lives (cover title: "3000 Degrees Fahrenheit"); another told the story of men who have fought breast cancer and survived. More recently, Curtis Pesmen shared his journal entries detailing his fight against testicular cancer. Frank and scary, funny and serious, Pesman will receive an award for this series, mark my words. Not that that will matter much to him; he beat the cancer. Talk about your "better yet." Anyone who read this series was rooting for him. It's not all so heavyhanded, though. "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart got out his red pen and annotated reporter A.J. Jacobs' interview with him hilariously. (Upon correcting Jacobs' written height estimate of 5'6", Stewart notes, "I'm 5'7", but I'm told I can play 5'6".") Or check out the moving issue exploring who society's heroes are, with Fred "Mr." Rogers on the cover and including a feature with regular men photographed alongside their heroes (worth it for the seven-year-old next to Batman alone). I could gush for hours. But, really, simply heading to the store and grabbing up an issue of Esquire, filling out the little subscription card and paying the remarkably low price for two years would take less time. The magazine speaks for itself.
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