Archive for September, 2011

DailyLit News: Banned Books Week

The latest DailyLit news should be arriving in your inbox today. In case you miss it (or want a jump start on it), here it is:

Note from the Founder

It’s Banned Books Week so we’re celebrating books that have been banned through the ages. From Alice in Wonderland to The Bible, I’m always amazed at which books have been banned. So I figure what better way to celebrate the week than by picking up (or in DailyLit’s case, signing up for) a book that’s been banned. Anyone up for it? Let’s all band together against banning books!

Cheers,

-Susan

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

Vote for Your Favorite Banned Book

Which is your favorite banned book? You can vote here for one of these in DailyLit’s library or any others that may have been banned:
-Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (a classic)
-Henry David Thoreau’s On the Duty of Civil Obedience (get inspired)
-Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (learn first hand why it’s controversial)
-Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (I can’t believe that was banned)
-And then there’s The Bible (need I say more).

We’ve created a special category on DailyLit of Banned Books where you can find other possible entries.

So, what’s your favorite banned book? You can vote here now.

Creative Challenge: School Jitters

Now that our kids have settled into school, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. But before we forget those first day jitters, I thought it would be fun to ask about your own first days of school. So in one sentence, describe a scene or memory from that time. Recall how you felt here.

Highlight: Back to School Video Courses

With back to school time, I thought I’d feature DailyLit’s expanded library of Khan Academy Video Courses. My kids have used them for basic math, and I’ve watched ones on the French Revolution and biology (I admit, I’ve stayed away from ones on differential equations and organic chemistry). You can find the entire DailyLit library of video courses here, including ones on investing, probability and even brain teasers. Why should kids have all the fun.

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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 43 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.

H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds – First Book on Your Phone?

Today is H.G. Wells’ birthday. Here’s why I’m celebrating him today: his War of the Worlds was the very first book loaded onto DailyLit. That’s because my husband, Albert Wenger, always wanted to read War of the Worlds, and DailyLit’s email installments (read on his mobile phone) gave him that chance. In fact, since I believe DailyLit was the first to put books on mobile devices (that was before any apps or Kindles or iPads) War of the Worlds may have been the very first book that could be read on your phone.

So cheers, to H.G. Wells!

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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.

Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie! Love, DailyLit

In honor of Agatha Christie’s birthday today, DailyLit is featuring two of her works available on DailyLit (for free, of course):

-The Mysterious Affair at Styles (77 parts)
Here’s a description:
This is Agatha Christie’s first novel and the debut of her infallible detective Hercule Poirot. In the midst of World War One, a group of guests at an old mansion in the countryside find themselves caught up in a murder plot. Someone has been poisoned to death and the killer is at large among the visitors. Who could it be? Who else may lose their lives before the killer is caught? Luckily, Hercule Poirot is on the case and, as befits the best murder mysteries, a tangled web of secrets and dark motives is revealed as Poirot’s brilliant methods bring him closer and closer to the truth.

-Secret Adversary (102 parts)
Here’s what it’s about:
Down on their luck and without any prospect of employment, Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley come up with a plan for financial success: to form their own detective agency. To their surprise, Tuppence is offered a job right away. To protect her identity, she uses a pseudonym, borrowing a name that she and Tommy had heard at random in a conversation in town. When Tuppence tells her potential employer, Mr. Whittington, that her name is “Jane Finn,” however, he begins acting strangely and makes Tuppence promise to keep a certain mysterious piece of knowledge secret in exchange for money. Tuppence has no idea what this knowledge might be, but clearly there is more to Jane Finn than either she or Tommy ever could have imagined. With a strong appetite for a good mystery, Tommy and Tuppence embark on a quest to figure out just who Jane Finn might be and exactly what top-secret information she might have. The two rookie detectives are in for a wild ride, certainly more than they ever bargained for on their first case. Try to keep up with them as they navigate a newfound world of intrigue, conspiracy, and danger.

Happy birthday, Agatha Christie!

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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’s Creative Challenge: School Day Jitters

Our kids are now (finally!) back in school so I thought I’d make this latest challenge about those first days of school. Remember your own first few days when you spotted that new kid in school with the strange knapsack? Or when you were picking out clothes for the first day? In one sentence, describe a scene or memory from those first days of school. You can post it 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.

DailyLit’s Expanded Library of Khan Academy Video Courses

Now that the kids are settling back into school, I thought I’d feature DailyLit’s expanded library of Khan Academy Video Courses. There are now 20 courses teaching a range of subjects from history and math to science and finance. And there’s even a course on Brain Teasers for those of you up to the challenge. If you’re not familiar with the Khan Academy, I’m a huge fan. My kids have used them to learn certain math concepts, and I’ve watched a few myself. OK, I admit I haven’t lunged for the courses on differential equations or organic chemistry; the history and biology courses are more my speed.

Here’s a list of the Khan Academy Video Courses featured on DailyLit:

HISTORY
-Revolutionary and Napoleonic France (12 parts)

MATH:
-Algebra (78 parts)
-Arithmetic (35 parts)
-Calculus (146 parts)
-Developmental Math (114 parts)
-Differential Equations (45 parts)
-Geometry (24 parts)
-Pre-Calculus (33 parts)
-Probability (25 parts)
-Trigonometry (32 parts)

SCIENCE:
-Biology (59 parts)
-Chemistry (103 parts)
-Organic Chemistry (73 parts)

FINANCE/ECONOMICS:
-Credit Crisis (13 parts)
-Current Economics (10 parts)
-Finance (84 parts)
-Paulson Bailout (14 parts)
-Valuation and Investing (12 parts)
-Venture Capital and Capital Markets (9 parts)

JUST FOR FUN
-Brain Teasers (9 parts)

So surprise your family and friends with your newfound knowledge — who knows, you might even be able to (finally) help your kids with their homework.

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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.

W.H. Auden’s Funeral Blues

As September 11th approaches, I thought I’d share this poem by W.H. Auden:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

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You may remember John Hannah’s moving recital of this poem in the film, Four Weddings and a Funeral; here it is on Youtube.

Grammar Pet Peeves – DailyLit’s Question of the Week

I admit it. I’m a stickler for grammar. I cringe when people say “different than” instead of “different from” — or when people don’t know the difference between an adverb and adjective (”I’m doing good” instead of “I’m doing well”. ) So I thought I’d take this opportunity, in honor of our kids going back to school, to ask what your grammar pet peeve is.

You can enter your grammar pet peeve 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.

Summer Farewell: the DailyLit Way

Since this long weekend typically marks the end of summer (with school beginning next week), I thought I’d feature two summer poems by Emily Dickinson. The first is called 122:

A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer’s noon —
A depth — an Azure — a perfume —
Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see —

Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle — shimmering grace
Flutter too far for me —

The wizard fingers never rest —
The purple brook within the breast
Still chafes it narrow bed —

Still rears the East her amber Flag —
Guides still the sun along the Crag
His Caravan of Red —

So looking on — the night — the morn
Conclude the wonder gay —
And I meet, coming thro’ the dews
Another summer’s Day!

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And since it’s been raining so much this summer, I thought you might enjoy this other poem by Emily Dickinson (called Summer Shower):

A DROP fell on the apple tree,
Another on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,
And made the gables laugh.

A few went out to help the brook,
That went to help the sea.
Myself conjectured, Were they pearls,
What necklaces could be!

The dust replaced in hoisted roads,
The birds jocoser sung;
The sunshine threw his hat away,
The orchards spangles hung.

The breezes brought dejected lutes,
And bathed them in the glee;
The East put out a single flag,
And signed the fête away.

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If you’re interested in reading other poems by Emily Dickinson, you can find them here on DailyLit.

Happy long weekend!

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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.

Twitter Tales: DailyLit’s Creative Challenge

Our latest creative challenge is to come up with a story, Twitter-style. For those not familiar with Twitter, the story should have a maximum of 140 characters (but feel free to make it shorter). Note that each letter, space and punctuation mark counts as one character.

You can post your Twitter tale here. And of course feel free to tweet it out (please use #dailylit so we can all find it).

Thanks to DailyLit reader DominiqueM for the idea behind these Twitter tales.

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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.