Great magazine with great writers- excedingly interesting...and certainly not just for Canadians. The Walrus and The Beaver (a history mag), both Canadian, are 2 of my favorite magazines of all time and are never tossed. I come back to them again and again. If you are "curious about the world", you will absolutely enjoy the varying styles of writing on a broad range of topics. Its kinda like The New Yorker + New York + New York Times Magazine + Smithsonian Magazine - all the dreck and ads = The Walrus.

I encourage more U.S. folk to try it out and see if you don't enjoy it just as much.

I'm a long-time reader of The New Yorker magazine, and I love that publication's combination of brilliantly creative essays, investigation, and literary works. After an afternoon of reading it, you feel not only entertained, but smarter as well. The Walrus, it seems, is Canada's long overdue answer to the genre. No, you won't find witty cartoons or the volume of entertaining ads (yet) in this one, but if you find Macleans, the de facto Canadian newsmagazine, a little too superficial for your taste, this would be a great publication for you to check out. The November 2004 issue includes a many-page essay on a controversial system of rationing health care services, a gripping field report on murdered diamond miners in Brazil, a photo essay on the American political conventions, a science story on a man who succeeded in grafting a fruit tree to produce many different kinds of fruits, a look at the lighter side of surveys, and much, much more. Each story is a read, not a glance, which will appeal to those who enjoy curling up to a magazine for a few hours. Most importantly, the stories are Canadian which is to say they're written by Canadians, written on topics of concern to Canadians, and/or written about Canadians. It began winning awards from its first issue, and one thing I find encouraging is the large amount of real estate in devotes each month to letters to the editor which shows, I believe, a willingness to take feedback to make the magazine even better. Like many magazines before it, it is venturing to the Web using its website as a companion to the magazine to encourage further debate. I'd recommend googling for the website to learn more. I eagerly await the next issue.