Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

Read DailyLit on your Kindle

We’ve had a number of folks ask about reading DailyLit on their Kindle, so we tested it out and came up with two methods you can use.

Method #1

1) On your computer (because the Kindle browser is more difficult to use), find the book you’d like to read, and view the first “preview” page.
2) Note the URL.
3) Type the URL into your Kindle’s web browser. (On the first-gen Kindle, you will find the browser in the menu under “experimental.”)
4) Once you’re at the page, bookmark it, possibly want to increase the text size, and then start reading.
5) The first DailyLit installment will take up several Kindle “screens,” so use the “next page” Kindle button until you get the the end of the installment.
6) When you get to the end of the installment, use the DailyLit “next” link to view the next installment (or edit the URL to the number of the next installment, if you’re comfortable doing so).
7) When you’re done reading, change your bookmark to the URL of the installment where you left off.

Keep in mind:
- This is not like the “Kindle experience” where you are downloading the whole book first, so you’ll have to stop reading if you lose the internet connection.

Method #2: Using Google Reader

1) On your computer, set up an RSS subscription to the book you’d like to read.
2) On your computer, set up / sign into your RSS feed reader and paste your RSS URL into Google Reader
3) Using Kindle browser, go to: www.google.com/reader/m/
4) Sign in with your Google account.
5) You should see your RSS installments.  Bookmark this page.  Click the installment you want to read.
6) Increase text size, read!
7) Use “next:” button to adavnce through book.

Keep in mind:
-You could do something similar with any online RSS reader of choice, especially if it comes in a “mobile device” format.
- There are numerous resources online with tips on how to use RSS readers on Kindles. You might trying searching for “RSS on Kindle” to find some information.

DailyLit Readers: Who We Are

Thanks again to all of you who took our recent reader survey. We wanted to share some of the information we got from the survey so you can know a little bit more about the people reading with you in the DailyLit community. Here are some of the most interesting details:

Age
26-35 19.5%
36-45 16.7%
46-55 22.9%
56-65 19.4%
66 or older 9.5%
Good to know: Love of reading never gets old.

Gender
Male 25.7%
Female 74.3%
Good to know: Women who read DailyLit, the women who run DailyLit–Susan and MaggieH–say howdy.

Do you have children?
Yes 51.3%
No 48.7%

How many books have you read in the past 12 months?
4-10 21.6%
11-20 24.4%
21-30 15.3%
Good to know: In addition to all of those books being read, 17.4% of you reported reading more than 50 books in the last 12 months. DailyLit: singlehandedly (well, many-handedly) disproving the idea that “people don’t read anymore.”

DailyLit Reader Spotlight: DailyLit Readers using Google Wave for Book Club

In our most recent newsletter we asked you to share your DailyLit stories with us–when you read, how DailyLit has affected your life, what you use the service for. One of the most interesting stories we’ve received so far has been this one from Christin, who writes:

I’ve been pleased with what my group of friends and I have done [with DailyLit]. We’re all very into Google Reader and Google Wave, so we’ve started a DailyLit book group using those as the medium. We have a single RSS feed from DailyLit to which all of us (about a dozen, a combination of coworkers and friends) subscribe, and we discuss each day’s installment on a running Wave. We just finished Heart of Darkness, and now we’re tackling The Picture of Dorian Gray. As we’re all several years out of school, we’d been collectively lamenting that we don’t read enough classic literature anymore, and group-reading online is fantastic both for ease-of-use and keeping ourselves accountable. Thanks!

It’s a great idea to use Google Wave with DailyLit for book clubs–hope this encourages more people to try it.

If you have a DailyLit story to share please email us at support[at]dailylit[dot]com.

More of Your Questions Answered

–When I click on “Home” it doesn’t take me to the front page-maybe that could use some clearing up?
The “Home” tab on the landing page–signified by a small house icon–does take you to the landing page. The “Settings” tab takes you to a page that allows you to manage your profile and the books you’re reading, create Booklists, and more account management features. Hope that helps clear things up.

–I would appreciate having a selection of books that were available for immediate download, as opposed to a “daily dose.”
The goal of DailyLit has been to provide a unique reading experience–just a small bite a day.  That said, you can read full books in your browser using the “preview” function of DailyLit (just click the “Preview” button on any book’s page). If you’re also interested in downloading full books there are numerous websites that allow you to download entire classics at once and many ebook retailers that provide the same for more contemporary books.

–Been getting a lot of garbled type in your emails and copy…impossible to read.
Hm, not sure what the problem could be here. If you ever have problems with your DailyLit emails please contact us at support[at]dailylit[dot]com so we can work out the issue.

–Keep up the good work. Can we suggest books?
Thanks! And yes, you can suggest books in our Book Request Forum.

–Please provide DailyLit access to the rest of the volumes of Remembrance of things Past.
Unfortuantely Swann’s Way is the only part of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past that has an English translation freely available. (Volumes I-IV are available online in the original French.) If you have an interest in reading the full work (in either English or French) you might try your local library.

Follow DailyLit Authors on Twitter

We’ve made it easy to follow our contemporary authors on Twitter: check out our DailyLit Contemporary Authors Twitter List. Favorites like Cory Doctorow, Grammar Girl (aka Mignon Fogarty), Emeril, and others are all using Twitter to share news and bits of their lives with followers. That’s really the great part about Twitter–it gives you the chance to hear from and interact with writers in a new way. (Well, not the classics–we won’t raise those authors from the dead but we do have something in the works, so stay tuned.) Follow our list and let the writers know you’re reading them on DailyLit–who doesn’t like to know their work is appreciated?

If you spot a contemporary DailyLit author on Twitter that we’ve missed, let us know at support [at] dailylit [dot] ! Try as we might, we’re not perfect.

Are You Ready for Christmas?

It’s just one day away. Do you still have a few names on your list? Cards you didn’t have a chance to send out? Why not send them a fun freebie gift from DailyLit–either a whole book, like Madame de Stael (Diane von Furstenberg’s favorite summer book) or a fun holiday read, like Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol. Include a personalized message with your gift and select the date and time for delivery and you’re all set–time for egg nog.

To get you in the spirit, here’s  the classic poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas:”

‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

By Clement C. Moore

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap–

When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter,
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon, on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blitzen–
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!
Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So, up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With a sleigh full of toys–and St. Nicholas too.
And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack;
His eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;

His droll little month was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump–a right jolly old elf;
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle;
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

DailyLit Books Make Great Freebie Gifts

We’re down to just one week for you to finish your Christmas shopping. But don’t panic! DailyLit books make great freebie gifts for those hard-to-buy-for folks on your list. Choose a book your friend or family member would like–or one you’d both like to read, so you can form a mini-book club–and select the date and time you’d like the book to start being delivered. Then you can enter a gift message that will show up in each installment of the book, reminding your loved one of you long after the holiday is over. No lines, no hassle, no rush–and it’s all for FREE. Why not give Pride & Prejudice, or Madame de Staël (Diane von Furstenberg’s favorite summer book), or Shoes, Bags, and Tiaras, or A Christmas Carol, or one of our 600+ other books?

Pausing Your DailyLit Books for Holidays

The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year. So even though DailyLit comes in bite-sized pieces, you may not be able to find those five minutes in your jam-packed schedule these days. To make things easier we’ve built a feature on DailyLit that allows you to suspend your books and set a date for them to resume automatically. So if you’re traveling over the holidays or are just too busy with family (and food!), click on the “Suspend” link at the bottom of any installment then pick the date you want your book to resume. Your book will pause until your days are back to normal. Just one way we’re trying to help make your holidays happier.

Reading DailyLit in Google Reader

We recently discovered a bug that affected folks reading DailyLit by RSS using Google Reader. The problem prevented new books from auto-starting when they should–for instance, if you have a To-Read list and finish your current book, the next book on your list should automatically start, and for Google Reader users this wasn’t happening.

We’ve now fixed the bug. If you’re in the middle of reading a book in Google Reader you won’t be affected. If you’ve finished books in Google Reader, it’s possible you might receive an installment from those books, which is unfortunately an unavoidable consequence of our fixing this bug.

If you previously finished a book and expected another book to auto-start and didn’t see it, you can correct the problem by unsubscribing and resubscribing to the feed in Google Reader. Then the feed will update properly and bring you up to speed.

DailyLit News: November 2009

Note from the CEO
It’s facetime here at DailyLit!  Upload a picture on your profile page and be eligible to win a free John Grisham book. It’s also time to thank Diane Von Furstenberg for sponsoring one of her favorite books of the year, Madame de Staël, now available for free on DailyLit.    And it’s time to launch our “Big Ideas” channel with inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuck, named one of this year’s most influential men.  We’ve also got free daily tips from Grammar Girl (secrets out — I love grammar!) and a new feature that allows you to automatically resume your books when you want to take a break for the holidays — just in time!

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

Diane von Furstenberg Brings Favorite Book to DailyLit for Free
Iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg has a holiday gift for you: one of her favorite reads this year is now available on DailyLit for free.  Madame de Stael: The First Modern Woman is a fast-paced biography that tells the glamorous, dramatic story of a woman who was a true force to be reckoned with. Vogue Magazine called it “a timely mediation on female power and an inspiring profile of one woman’s courage.” Thanks to Diane and the publisher, it’s free through the end of January. Read it.

New! DailyLit Kicks off “Big Ideas”
“Big Ideas” is designed to inspire you with new ideas for both work and play.  Kicking off this new channel is inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crush It! Cash In on your Passion.  He grew his family’s wine business and became a national industry leader, landing him at #18 on AskMen.com’s list of 50 most influential Men of 2009. Read it–FREE.

DailyLit’s Big Read: Short Story by John Grisham
Bestselling author John Grisham just released his first ever collection of short stories, Ford County–and we’ve selected one as this month’s Big Read. “Fetching Raymond” is a simple, powerful story about a day one family knew was coming but still can’t face. Read it–FREE.

Reader Challenge
As bestselling author Daniel Pink wrote, exercising your creativity leads to personal and professional success.  With that in mind, and holiday dinners fast approaching, this month’s reader challenge asks you to imagine a fictional holiday gathering and describe–in no more than 50 words–a character, conversation or event at your holiday meal. Share your mini-stories in our Reader Challenge forum. And to sweeten the pot, we’ll select three winners, each of whom will receive a copy of Mollie Katzen’s new book, Get Cooking.

New reads
–Grammar Girl: She’s on the scene to make grammar easy and fun with her “quick and dirty” tips.  We’ve got a selection from her new book that will make you a better writer. Read it–FREE.
–Jane Perry Returns: In a second piece of original writing, Laurel Dewey’s inimitible heroine Detective Jane Perry returns to DailyLit. Get into her head with “You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover,” a blog entry by the detective. Read it–FREE. (And if you missed the first installment, “An Unfinished Death,” read it here–FREE.)

Pause Your Books for the Holidays
You’ve always been able to suspend and resume delivery of your books using the links at the end of any installment. Now, with the holidays coming up, when you want to suspend your book, you can set a date for it to automatically resume.  Just click on the “suspend” link at the bottom of any installment to set it up.

Upload Your Picture Now–You May Win a Grisham Book
To make our community a little friendlier, join us for some facetime here at DailyLit.  Help us out by uploading a personalized profile picture. Your face, your cat, your favorite painting–doesn’t matter what you choose. And everyone with a personalized picture uploaded by 11:59pm EST on Sunday, November 22nd will be automatically entered to win one of five copies of John Grisham’s new book Ford County.

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