Archive for August, 2011

Words that Make You Cringe

I got a some flack this week when I sent out the DailyLit newsletter that included the word “chillaxing” (as in a combination of chilling and relaxing). This word apparently makes some of you cringe. As I explained in the newsletter, I’d never heard this word until recently when my 11 year old son exclaimed, “You need to chillax, Mom!”. I thought it was a fun word, but clearly some readers disagree.

So I started to think of words (or made-up words) that are like nails on a chalkboard. I thought I’d create a forum where we can all put down words that make us cringe. And that way, for future reference, I’ll be forewarned.:)

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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 40 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: Time to Chillax

In case you miss the latest arriving in inboxes today, here it is:

NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER

I think we have it all wrong. We should all be taking off the month of August. There is absolutely no reason we should be sitting at our desks, pretending to work when we could be out by the water “chillaxing” (that is, chilling and relaxing). So I thought I’d highlight the next best thing: a few short stories to transport ourselves to other lands and various creative challenges to keep our minds off work.
So cheers, to chillaxing!
-Susan

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

SHORTS AND TAILS
Here are some short stories and tails (well, OK, tales) for some light summer reading:
-Margaret Atwood’s White Horse (meeting her was one of the high points of the year; what an amazing woman!)
-Jhumpa Lahiri’s Hell-Heaven (one of my favorite authors)
-Classic Shorts (featuring stories by Fitzgerald, Chekhov, and Poe; selected by editors of Poets & Writers literary magazine)
-Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I still can’t remember the difference between Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin; can you?)
-Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (I’ve been meaning to re-read this novella — or do I just think I’ve read it?)
-E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View (always transports me to Florence!)

VOTRE PASSEPORT, SI’L VOUS PLAÎT

Even if you can’t swing a trip to France or Spain this summer, you can armchair travel with Berlitz Essential French Phrases or Berlitz Essential Spanish Phrases.

HIGHLIGHT: CREATIVE CHALLENGES

At least look as though you’re getting serious work done by tackling one of these past creative challenges (or just check out other readers’ contributions):
- 50 Word Challenge (write an extremely short story with a beginning, middle and end)
-10 Word Summer Memories (quick, before you forget!)
-Summer Love in One Sentence (who can resist?)
-What’s Your Favorite Word? (Mine is “chillax” — introduced to me by my 11 year old son as in, “You need to chillax, Mom.”)
-And then for a couple of aspirational, thought-provoking challenges: What’s Your Sentence? (need to think of a sentence that describes your life) and Before I die… (enough said).
-Your Perfect Day (our latest challenge: “What does your perfect day look like?” Mine would start in a cafe in Paris reading The International Herald Tribune, eating a freshly-baked croissant and sipping cafe au lait; I’d then hang out at Shakespeare & Company bookshop followed by a stroll through the gardens of the Picasso Museum.) And yours? What’s your perfect day?

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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 40 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 Features Koran at Start of Ramadan

Today marks the first day of Ramadan. I gather that since Ramadan is a time to worship Allah and since part of that worship includes reciting passages from The Koran, I thought I’d feature The Koran today on DailyLit.

So if you’d like to read The Koran in daily installments delivered directly to your email inbox you can sign up 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 40 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.

Revisiting 10 Word Summer Memories

I thought it would be fun to revisit some past creative challenges, and I came upon this one that asked folks to describe summer memories in exactly 10 words. You might enjoy taking a look at these 10 Word Summer Memories, and they might inspire you to add your own. Here are a few:

#
Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets.
eileenweirJun 28, 2010 8:26 am
•  Cape Cod, big house, hooded sweatshirts, COLD ocean, horseshoe crabs… (by lskohn)
•  Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets. (by eileenweir)
•  No school, no shoes, Good Humor bells, fireflies, water sprinklers (by patk)
•  1968, Berkshires, bestfriend, silent nights, blue-eyed farmer, homemade donuts (by livinonthecrowrock)
•  Watermelon under the tree, blueberry popsicles, corn on the cob (by kogawa)
•  Summer afternoon library books crumple a quilt under the elm (by bookmonster)
•  Cold chocolate milk from the milkman, only twenty-seven cents (by deirdre1952)


You can read other summer memories here; add your own as well.  Have a field day!

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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 40 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.

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