Nobody promotes their magazine on Flipboard quite like former Jeopardy contestant Elizabeth McCullough. On Twitter, McCullough is a master of the pleasantly provocative tweet—”Rough news cycle, huh? Here’s a hamster!”—that directs readers to her magazine, The Internet Flâneur. “I’m just strolling around the internet, gathering the best of what I find and sharing it,” says McCullough. A professional writer and editor, McCullough—who holds degrees in psychology and counseling— is also a research assistant for business thinker, social scientist and The New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink. In her free time, she manages one of the world’s most comprehensive literary blogs, Book Balloon. In short: McCullough loves information. As for what kind, suffice to say her insatiable intellect is without prejudice. Feeling quite confident that we’d learn something new, we asked her: what are you reading? I subscribe to many, many newsletters and site feeds that I skim just about every morning for articles related to my interests and projects: writing, politics, literature, and creative nonfiction and journalism. Previously, when I found something quirky or moving or really well written, I’d share the link on Facebook. I’d get the occasional comment from a friend saying, “You always find the best stuff,” which was gratifying. One day, a friend from Charlottesville, Cindy Maisannes, suggested I give Flipboard a try. I’ve loved magazines since I was old enough to hold one. My mother and father subscribed to several, including National Geographic, Field & Stream, Readers Digest, and the classic women’s magazines: Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal. My dream job would be reading vintage magazines all day long. So when I realized that Flipboard was a way I could make my own “magazine” and share it with my friends, I was hooked. My favorite part is choosing the cover image. I know the rule of thumb for a successful magazine is to concentrate on a hot topic or niche interest, but my mind doesn’t work that way. That’s why I called my magazine “The Internet Flaneur”—I’m just strolling around the Internet, gathering the best of what I find and sharing it.
The Internet Flâneur by Elizabeth McCullough Here’s where it gets a little embarrassing: I don’t have an iPad, which I understand is the ideal platform for using Flipboard as a feed reader and a porter to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. So I’m not getting the full effect of one of the things Flipboard does best, which is graphically organizing information into streams.

