Archive for November, 2008
Our Question of the Week last week took a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as our jumping-off point: “Every reader has his first book; I mean to say, one book among all others which in early youth first fascinates his imagination, and at once excites and satisfies the desires of his mind.” For Longfellow, that book was Geoffrey Crayon’s Sketch-Book by Washington Irving. We asked our readers: what was yours?
The responses were as varied and marvelous as our readers themselves: among the responders I found a young Sherlock Holmes fan and someone who was inspired by the key lessons about tolerance in The Color of Love. One reader still remembers wearing down batteries while reading The Hobbit by flashlight, while for another reader, Atticus Finch’s declaration that one should never lie to children has rung true for years. From Alice in Wonderland to Crime and Punishment, the different books that have had a profound impact on people form a fascinating list.
Diverse as they are, it seems to me there are two main threads: books that are strikingly imaginative and sparked our own imaginations, and books that very explicitly treat children as adults–I’m thinking here especially of Atticus’s line. We remember books that talked to us like grown-ups (or the first adult books we “got” as kids) and ones that encouraged us to leave our world for places of fancy that can only be found down the rabbit-hole or deep under the sea. I wonder if this all speaks to our desire to escape–somehow–from the awkwardness of being caught between childhood and adulthood. Or maybe not–either way, fascinating stuff. Anyone else care to give it the ol’ Freudian try?
November 18th, 2008
Welcome back to another work week! We’ve created another DailyLit Question of the Week that I think will really take you places. In the past few weeks the stories DailyLit Members have shared have been great–from joelsanda reading The Hobbit by flashlight to danahuff’s not-entirely-successful attempt to dress up as Ophelia (I hold that her colleagues’ failure to recognize her is due to their own shortcomings rather than any deficiency in the costume).
This week I’m wondering about journeys. And this journey starts, of course, with the JUMP to the Weekly Question!
November 17th, 2008
We’re happy to announce that we’ve worked with Viigo, a developer of mobile content and delivery platforms for smartphones, to make 25 of our most popular books available through the Viigo service. Viigo works as a mobile RSS reader and complements DailyLit’s current offering of books by email and RSS by giving readers another way to enjoy DailyLit on their mobile devices (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.).
The current books available on Viigo include Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, Moby Dick, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and other well-known books.
If you’d like to try reading your DailyLit through Viigo, go to getviigo.com on your mobile device to get started.
November 12th, 2008
It’s the beginning of the week again, and that means you have a whole new chance to speak your mind with DailyLit’s Question of the Week. With last week’s political drama behind us, this week our question waxes introspective. Get ready to think deeply about “the one” after the jump below.
Today is also Veteran’s Day. Don’t forget to thank a veteran or an enlisted man or woman for their service to our country.
And, coming tomorrow–in-depth analysis (well, sort of) and the results (definitely) of last week’s Literary Election!
Ready…jump to this week’s question!
November 11th, 2008
I’m excited to announce that we’ve just launched a brand new category on DailyLit: Book Samplers. Book Samplers combine short excerpts from different books and allow you to easily sample a number of different titles. If you like the excerpt of the book contained in the sampler, you can easily access the full book on DailyLit to start reading it or give it as a gift using our gifting feature. Or, you can add it to your To-Read BookList with one click.
If you know you like romance but aren’t sure what to read next, try our Tastes of Harlequin Romance Sampler. Or, if you’re a fan of American history but don’t know what books would be of interest, it’s easy to find one in our American Classics Sampler. Plus, just in time for the beginning of the holiday shopping season, we’ve created a Gift Ideas Sampler that will make shopping oh-so-easy. We also have Samplers of Shakespeare, Science Fiction, the Best of the Brits, Books for Moms, Poetry, Modern Memoirs, Men of the Mediterranean Romance Novels (saucy!), and Jane Austen.
You can seem them all here.
November 6th, 2008
The election is almost here–it’s only been, what, 15, 20 years of campaigning so far? We’re in the democratic spirit at DailyLit and want to open up another avenue for you to speak your mind. Our Question of the Week wonders what kind of pick you’d make for president in a special kind of election.
The polling place is open after the jump.
November 3rd, 2008