Archive for the ‘Reader Challenges’ Category

10 Word Summer Memories

Two days ago I announced a new creative challenge: 10 Word Summer Memories. I challenged you to share your favorite summer memories in just 10 words. This challenge has clearly hit a note; there have been some really fun entries. I thought it would be fun to share (in no particular order):

  • “Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets.” by eileenwei
  • “Cape Cod, big house, hooded sweatshirts, COLD ocean, horseshoe crabs…” by lskohn
  • “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 all the memories here; there’s also still time to add others. Have a field day!

DailyLit News: Summer Starts

Note from the CEO
School’s out for the summer! The kids are thrilled, and although it’s been years since I’ve taken my last final exam, I’m as excited as they are. Now we just need to bust out the sunscreen and head to the water. Hope you all have a great beginning of summer!

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
sdanziger [at] dailylit [dot] com

Summer Big Read: Huckleberry Finn
What better way to launch the summer than with Mark Twain’s classic summer story of fun along the Mississippi? Join us in reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—for the first time or the umpteenth. Find it here.

Reader Challenge: 10 Word Summer Memories
We all have favorite memories of warm, lazy days of summer: an afternoon on a sunbleached dock, a family vacation, a runny ice cream cone at the county fair. We’re challenging you to share your favorite summer memory in just 10 words. Share your mini summer moments in our Reader Challenge Forum.

Readers’ Summer Reading List
We asked what you were planning on reading this summer, and you responded with a wonderfully diverse list. Here’s a sampling (and there’s still time to add your own list here):

The Sookie Stackhouse books—erinpayton
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This is for 9th grade Honors English—spectrekitty
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson and Shanghai Girls by Lisa See—Moengey
Anna Karenina; The Great Gatsby; Catch 22; Moby Dick; The Count of Monte Cristo; A Tale of Two Cities; Dracula; 1984—digiworks8
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri—lolabean
The Crucible by Arthur Miller—hoelisha
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro—sdhomecare
War and Peace and American Prometheus—Ichasson

DailyLit’s Book Channel
Check out our book channel for recipes from Emeril’s latest book, Farm to Fork, which shows you how to use organic and locally-grown produce just in time for summer harvests. There’s also Heartbroken Open, an inspirational memoir about the woman who learns to live after her husband (author of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Stuff”) unexpectedly dies. And there’s Critical Care, a powerful, touching look at a hospital’s cancer ward through the eyes of a nurse. You can find these excerpts (made available courtesy of HarperStudio), and other bestselling, award-winning picks in our Book Channel.

Classic Shorts
With all this talk of summer reading we wanted to remind you about Classic Shorts: Eight Stories for Summer, a great collection curated by our friends at Poets & Writers. These shorts from literary masters—Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Poe, and more—are ideal for getting some “serious” reading done without facing the 663 installments of War and Peace. Find Classic Shorts here. (Oh, and if you’re feeling inspired, War and Peace is here.)

New Reader Challenge: Heroes

Inspired by Heroes For My Son, a collection of heroes put together by bestselling author Brad Meltzer, this month’s Reader Challenge encourages you to share your own heroes. In 50 words or fewer, tell us why this person means so much to you. We’ll select our three favorites, each of whom will receive a signed copy of Heroes For My Son. Be sure to post your hero in our Reader Challenge Forum by June 1st at 11:59pm EST to be considered.

Winners of “Your Words That Matter” Reader Challenge

Thank you to everyone who participated in our April Reader Challenge Your Words That Matter–we loved reading all of your inspirational quotes and we hope all of you got some good feelings from them too. Congrats to our three winners, each of whom will receive a hard copy of Words That Matter: A Little Book of Life Lessons from the editors of O, the Oprah Magazine.

“Nobody looks at the bridesmaids’ feet.” In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff.
-by tin0002

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” –Goethe
-by lisbie

“He’s fine, and the car can be fixed.” My husband’s grandfather (the calmest person I ever met) said this to his daughter, who was about to scream at her son for backing his four-wheeler into her car. Now, whenever I feel myself getting angry over something small, I say to myself, “He’s fine, and the car can be fixed.” It’s a wonderful reminder of what’s really important in life.
-by JLS915

Last Chance for Berlitz Spanish Lessons and Reader Challenge

It’s the last day of April and a big Last Chance Friday at DailyLit.

Today’s the last day to sign up for our exclusive Berlitz Spanish Lessons. It covers the essentials–grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary–on key topics like conversation, traveling, and working. It’s great for beginners or those needing a refresher. And it says adios tomorrow, May 1. (As long as you sign up by tonight at 11:59pm you’ll receive the full course.)

Today is also the last day to enter April’s Reader Challenge, Your Words That Matter. Share the advice you’d like to pass on—to your children, your best friends, your family. We’ll choose three of our favorites to win a hard copy of Words That Matter. Post your entries in our Reader Challenge Forum by tonight at, you guessed it, 11:59pm to be considered.

Reader Challenge–Enter by Friday!

This month’s Reader Challenge is inspired by Words That Matter, a book of inspiration selected by the editors of O, the Oprah Magazine. We’re asking you to share the advice you’d like to pass on—to your children, your best friends, your family. We’ll choose three of our favorites to win a hard copy of Words That Matter. Make sure to post your inspirational quote in our Reader Challenge Forum no later than this Friday, April 30th at 11:59pm EST to be considered.

Winners of Love Bites Reader Challenge

We, ahem, loved reading your entries to our Love Bites Reader Challenge. In 140-characters you told love stories that were funny, sweet, sad, and everything in between. It was hard to choose winners, but here are our top five (in no particular order), each of whom will receive a free copy of Us: Americans Talk About Love. Thanks to everyone for participating!

-I keep a lot of photos at the Missed Persons Bureau. It’s like that other bureau, except I know where the person is. He’s just not with me.
–candace2932

-We met in the comic book shop where we both wanted the last Watchman trade paperback. We decided to share it. And now we share everything.
–Golem100

-i thought unconditional only preceded surrender. she showed me unconditional love. i really love this girl. how do i tell her i’m married?
–anon_e_mouse

-Middle-aged love: the memory of the spark fades, the glow more warm and comforting now.
–Chaosopher

-The one I love is looking straight back at me. I blink and double-check the mirror. Yup I am still there.
–x4xtazy

3 More Days to Enter “Love Bites” Reader Challenge

Our “Love Bites” reader challenge–where you tell a love story in under 140 characters, the length of a short sentence–ends this Sunday, March 7 at 11:59pm. We’ll select five winners, each of whom will receive a copy of Us: Americans Talk About Love. So think about your own love stories–past or present–or get your creative juices flowing and create an imaginary one. And hurry!

DailyLit News: February 2010

Note from the CEO
I love snow days! I’m holed up in my house, kids outside sleigh-riding (no wonder it’s peaceful!), with time for myself—a real treat! Speaking of which, we have some real treats in store for you this month. We’ve got a short story from Alice Munroe’s new collection that everyone’s been raving about, and we’ve just launched a Berlitz French series, which follows on the heels of last month’s popular Berlitz Spanish course. Oh, and for you SAT-takers, check out our new Kaplan SAT series. Uh oh. Kids just got home. There goes that peace and quiet!

Susan Danziger
CEO/Founder, DailyLit
sdanziger@dailylit.com

Alice Munro: Our Big Read
Writer Alice Munro won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for her lifetime body of work, and people are over the moon about her latest short story collection, Too Much Happiness. We’re excited to feature one of her short stories (”Fiction”) as this month’s Big Read. Life, love and writing all intertwine in one woman’s life. Read it here.

New! Berlitz Essential French (and Spanish)
Given the amazing response we had from the launch of Berlitz Spanish Lessons, we’ve teamed up with Berlitz again to offer Berlitz Essential French. And while we’re at it, we’re offering Berlitz Essential Spanish too. Both series feature bite-sized lessons in vocabulary perfect for travelers (or at least arm-chair travelers), from culture to transportation and accommodations. Read Essential French here and Essential Spanish here. (And if you missed our exclusive Berlitz Spanish Lessons, you can find those here.)

Kaplan SAT Prep
Taking the SATs or have a friend who’s due? We’ve got a daily course for that extra little something—and it’s all on us! Read it here.

Reader Challenge: Love Bites
We heard about this challenge on Twitter and thought it would be a fun Reader Challenge for February. Tell a love story (your own or make one up) in 140 characters or fewer—that is, the length of a single tweet or short sentence. We’ll choose five winners who will each receive a copy of Us: Americans Talk About Love, a collection of folks talking about love. Post your love bites in our Reader Challenge Forum by 11:59pm EST on Sunday, March 7th to be included in the contest.

New Detective Story
We know from our recent survey that Laurel Dewey’s heroine, Detective Jane Perry, has become a reader favorite, so we’re excited to launch the fifth and final piece of original fiction featuring the detective, Promissory Payback. And if you missed the first four pieces, you can find them here.

Our Book Channel
Our Book Channel brings you excerpts from books hand-selected by DailyLit staff and those in the know in the book industry. We’ve recently featured the 2009 Man Book Prize winner for fiction; a new novel that O, the Oprah Magazine called “mesmerizing;” and the #1 New York Times bestselling Happiness Project. What’s up next? It’s a surprise, of course, but count on more bestsellers, award-winners, and buzzed-about titles—the ones everyone will be talking about. Sign up for our Book Channel here.

And, finally, thought you’d enjoy this love sonnet from Shakespeare (I’ve always heard the first line but never really read it myself):

XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

From Sonnets by William Shakespeare.

Reader Challenge: Love Bites

Since it includes Valentine’s Day, February is the month of love. We heard about this love-themed challenge on Twitter and thought it would be perfect for this month’s challenge.

Tell a love story–your own or one you make up–in 140 characters or less: that is, the length of a single tweet or short sentence. We’ll select five winners, each of whom will receive a copy of Us: Americans Talk About Love (in more than 140 characters!). Post your love bites in our Reader Challenge Forum by 11:59pm on Sunday, March 7 to be included in the challenge. Good luck!

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