Archive for January, 2011

DailyLit’s Weekly Question: What Gets You Up in the Morning?

DailyLit’s Question of the Week is: What gets you up in the morning? What excites you and invigorates you and makes you get out of bed? Enter your thoughts here.

Thanks to Daniel Pink for the inspiration behind this week’s question, which comes from his new book, Drive.

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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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit News: January 2011

Here’s the latest news from DailyLit in case you missed it in your inbox:

NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER

This is the year for me to shape up — both on the inside and out. I’ve started to hit the gym a few days a week (OK, I suppose I’m down to once or twice a week), and I’ve launched a few courses on DailyLit to help build some more mental muscle. I’m particularly excited about MBA Mondays, which combines lessons I would have learned in business school with real-life examples taught by the celebrated venture capitalist, Fred Wilson. And I’m trying something new: I’ve just launched video courses from the wonderful Khan Academy on biology, algebra, and French history. Now I’m leaving the biology and algebra courses to more daring folks, but that little taste of Napoleon in my inbox is just what I was looking for.
Oooh la la!
-Susan

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
sdanziger@dailylit.com
Twitter:@susandanziger, @dailylit

MBA MONDAYS

I’ve wanted to feature MBA Mondays for quite a while now, and I’m excited to have finally launched this series. If you haven’t heard of the author, Fred Wilson (he’s been described as a business guru who specializes in technology start-ups), you’re in for a real treat. MBA Mondays is a crash business course (what you would have or should have learned in business school), and given that it’s on DailyLit, you don’t have to wait for Monday to get your next fix. Full disclosure: I know Fred personally, and I can vouch for his being one of the smartest business guys I know.

CREATIVE CHALLENGE: WHAT’S YOUR SENTENCE?

What’s your sentence? It may be: “She taught two generations of children to read” or “He raised four kids who became happy and healthy adults.” Daniel Pink (in his new book, Drive) is the inspiration behind this month’s creative challenge. He explains that creating your sentence is a way to orient your life towards a greater purpose. Seems like a neat challenge. So, what’s your sentence? Post it here.

NEW: VIDEO COURSES ON FRENCH HISTORY, ALGEBRA, AND BIOLOGY

Curious about biology? Want to learn about Napoleon? Need a refresher on algebra? Now’s your chance. The Khan Academy created these amazing video courses that will get your mental juices flowing. Set your schedule to receive a video (via a link) once or twice a week, sit back, and learn something new.

TWITTER TREATS

If you haven’t been following DailyLit on Twitter, each day in January I’ve featured a great first line from a novel. And in February, you’ll be treated to some lovely Valentine tweets that may make you swoon (I promise, not too soppy!) You can follow DailyLit on Twitter here.

FEATURED FEATURE: MAKE INSTALLMENTS LONGER

You may not have noticed that you can change the length of your book installments to make them twice or four times longer than the normal length. So if you’re an avid reader — or really want to get through that tome of War and Peace this year — just go to the “Manage the books you’re reading” page once you’ve logged in to DailyLit or click the “Manage all your settings” link at the bottom of any book installment. You’ll be devouring those books in no time.

READER SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY FUN WITH GRANDMA JAN

I thought I’d highlight a reader (or in this case, group of readers) this month. I noticed in our forums that a family of three aunts, their kids and even “Grandma Jan” started reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm all together via DailyLit. Looks like they’re having a blast (with snarky comments flying all around). So, if you’re looking for a way to bring family and friends together, DailyLit books and our forums may just do the trick.

DailyLit Launches Video Courses from the Khan Academy

I’m excited to announce the launch of a new series on DailyLit: educational video courses from the Khan Academy. I’ve been a big fan of the Khan Academy for quite a while now. If you’re not familiar with their video courses, they’re all about using video to explain the world. Providing video courses via DailyLit is new for DailyLit; we’ll be sending you (via links) daily or weekly lectures. Given the high quality lectures given by The Khan Academy, I’m convinced it’s worth it. I’m launching this new series with lectures on biology, algebra, and Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. So join me in helping make your inbox a little smarter.

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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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches MBA Mondays

I am thrilled to announce that DailyLit has just launched MBA Mondays, written by the incomparable Fred Wilson. MBA Mondays combines lessons learned in business school with real-life examples taken from Fred’s experience in the business world.

Fred Wilson is a partner at Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on disruptive startups. His investments include Twitter, Foursquare, and Etsy. MBA Mondays was originally published every Monday on Fred’s blog, avc.com.

Here’s what Fred writes:

My friend Pravin sent me an email last week after my “How To Calculate A Return On Investment” post. He said: “I wish there was a class that I could take that would teach me how to properly research stocks/companies for investment purposes and how that could be made into a private tutoring business. It’d be for people like me, people who didn’t go to school for business but still are interested in understanding all the jargon, methods of investing, etc and how to apply it to a buy and hold strategy.” Pravin then went on to say that the post I wrote was exactly the kind of thing he was looking for and that he’d like to see me do more of it. So with that preface, I’d like to announce a new series here at AVC. I’m calling it “MBA Mondays”. Every Monday I’ll write a post that is about a topic I learned in business school. I’ll keep it dead simple (many people thought my ROI post last week was too simple). And I’ll try to connect it to some real world experience.

The benefit of reading MBA Mondays via DailyLit is that you can set your schedule to read a lesson every Monday—or whenever you want.

Still, the name MBA Mondays lives on.

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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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Snow Day!

It’s a Snow Day today! I can’t possibly describe the jubilation in our house last night when the phone rang, and the kids heard school was cancelled today – Snow Day!

For our question this week, DailyLit is asking you to remember your own Snow Days. What’s your favorite Snow Day memory? You can enter your snowy 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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches First Great Lines on Twitter

To celebrate the beginning of the new year, DailyLit has launched a First Great Lines series via Twitter. For the month of January, DailyLit will be featuring tweets with a first great line of a novel or other literary piece.

DailyLit can be followed here on Twitter. If you have a first great line that can fit into a tweet, please tweet it to DailyLit.

Here’s to a first great month!

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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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit asks: What’s Your Sentence?

I read Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, over vacation, and in it he challenges us to ask ourselves the “big question”: What’s your sentence?

For instance, on a grandiose scale, Pink explains that Abraham Lincoln’s sentence may have been: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.” But someone else’s may be as simple as: “She taught two generations of children how to read,” or “He raised four kids who became happy and healthy adults”. Pink explains it’s a way to orient your life towards a greater purpose.

So, as the year begins, I’d like to ask: “What’s your sentence?” You can enter it in DailyLit’s forums here.

And thanks, Dan, for the inspiration.

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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 and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.