What is the value of a 1953 Readers Digest?

Go to your local paper recycling plant and ask them what their rate is for recyclable paper. That will be about right.

Now, if the question is could you sell it for more than the pulp rate if you found the right buyer (perhaps someone who was born in the month it was issued, and wanted it for that reason), then yeah, probably. But you'd have to find such a buyer first, and it's difficult to guess what they'd be willing to pay. Magazines are not like coins (which have intrinsic value) or stamps (which are at least widely collected). For both of those, there are enough transactions to get at least a rough estimate of what people are willing to pay for any given coin/stamp.