Reader's Digest

@ArishMell you're right. Maybe pamphlets wasn't the right description.

@FreddieUK I recall seeing Reader's Digest there but dentists' and doctors' waiting-rooms rarely have any magazines now.

My dentists' waiting-room used to offer old editions of women's fashion and "celebrity" magazines.

Tyre-fitters' waiting-rooms typically offer only glossy magazines reviewing impossibly over-specified, over-powered and over-priced cars.

I use unisex hairdressers now but can recall the gentlemen's barbers' waiting-literature tended to be soft porn men's rags. The barbers themselves were not much better. All they talked about was the day's weather and last night's football or boxing on the telly.

A decade or so ago I noticed the irony in my local GP's surgery having editions of the County magazine. That is merely a glossy "lifestyle" advertising publication for the very well-off second-homes types; and the surgery served one of the borough's poorest areas in a county with too many second-homes.

@ArishMell The disappearance of magazines from waiting rooms is an the attempt to prevent the spread of infection.

@FreddieUK Yes - I recall reading that somewhere. I wonder how hazardous the magazines really were, but it was still right to take the precaution.