Archive for September, 2010

DailyLit Celebrates “Banned Books” Week with Special Category

In honor of Banned Books Week (all this week, which celebrates the freedom of reading), DailyLit has just created a special “Banned Books Category” that highlights books that have been banned through the ages. Here’s a taste of the banned books you can start reading on DailyLit (all for free, of course).

-The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (91 Parts)
-The Arabian Nights (633 parts)
-The Bible (22 to 56 parts, depending on Book/Gospel)
-The Call of the Wild by Jack London (37 parts)
-The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (230 parts)
-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (84 parts)
-The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (28 parts)
-Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (423 parts)
-Macbeth by William Shakespeare (27 parts)
-Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (145 parts)
-Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe (164 parts)
-The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (83 parts)

Let’s all pick a banned book this week and start reading it. And thanks to DailyLit readers @minocris and @G Muge Ucar for suggesting that we create a special “Banned Books” category.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Question of the Week: Instilling the Joy of Reading

We have family reading time every night (I shoot for an hour) when we all gather together and read our books. That’s easy for my 10-year-old son who devours books; he’s like a dog with a bone, dragging books wherever he is and “sneak reads” whenever he has a chance. And my daughter, the night owl, will often be found past her bedtime finishing that “one last chapter.” My other son – he’s 8 — well, he’s another story. He hasn’t yet discovered the joy of reading, although to be fair, he does enjoy reading “fact” books and loves when we take turns reading aloud from such books as The Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorites!).

When we saw my son’s 5th grade teacher the other evening at the school’s open house, she made a point of discussing what we can do at home to help our kids become better readers (I like to think of it as developing more enthusiastic readers). She confirmed that kids should read at least 30 minutes an evening (good to know I’m doing something right!). She also mentioned that reading aloud to kids – even to 10 year olds — is really helpful. And she recommends that we tell them about books we’ve been reading or magazine or newspaper articles that catch our attention and ask them to share their reading as well. Note to self to add that to tonight’s dinner conversation.

I started asking others what they do to instill the joy of reading in their kids. A friend of mine will literally pay her 13-year-old daughter for 20 minutes of reading a night (I believe it’s $1); otherwise, her daughter will not pick up a book. I have to admit I have mixed feelings about that but do understand why she does it.

I’d love to hear how you’ve come to love reading (or how you’ve gotten your kids to share the bug). Any tips or tricks would welcome here in DailyLit’s forum.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Question of the Week: Back to School Books

Now that everyone is back in school, I thought I’d make this week’s question about books read during your school years. Which book do you best remember reading in your school years (and why do you think it’s memorable)? Feel free to interpret “school years” however you like.

I’m hoping this will become a treasure trove of books that parents can recommend to their kids — or simply books that people can read who may have missed out (including me!).

Enter your school book memories here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Creative Challenge: What I did on my Summer Vacation (and dare not tell my teacher!)

In homage to old back to school assignments, for DailyLit’s new creative challenge, we are asking our readers in just one sentence to tell us: “What did you do on your summer vacation?” Readers are asked to have fun with it, and tell us things they never would have dared tell their teacher. And we don’t even care if readers make it all up. Enter your exploits in one sentence here.

And remember, experts like Daniel Pink have stressed the importance of exercising creativity to ensure professional and personal success. So go ahead, it’s just one sentence. Be creative here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Asks: What’s Your Moby Dick?

I’m in awe of folks who have tackled such works as War and Peace or Moby Dick. Doesn’t matter how they’ve done it — if they’ve used DailyLit, their Kindles or good-old fashioned hard copies. They’ve set out with their goal in mind and accomplished it. I’ve recently read the War of Art (I highly recommend this short book), which inspires us to finish that one unfinished work within each of us – that novel, business, charity or marathon we each dream of completing.

For DailyLit’s question this week, what’s your Moby Dick? Do you have that a whale of a novel you’d like to read (or write), that business you’d like to start or marathon you’d like to run? And would you be willing to pledge (in these back to school days) that you’ll actually begin to tackle it this fall? Now’s your chance! Enter your aspirations here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.