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| Hearsay: |
Just shoot me now. If I don’t get to an email within the first 25 minutes, it’s likely to get pushed further an further down the list and lost. Can you imagine that happening with book chapters? Actually, that might not be a bad idea, given some of the flab I’ve read lately. It would just have to be the right chapters. I think we got an email from these dailylit people the other day in fact… I seem to remember seeing it go by while thinking, I should really open that.
The suggestion seems to be that reading is a chore, something to be planned for rather than enjoyed in a free moment. But surely the day is full of potential moments to open a book: waiting for a bus, over lunch, in bed… and now, in the workplace. Dailylit.com puts paid to the excuse about not finding time for good books; now the books come to you, as daily morsels in your inbox. Over 800 books have been divided into bite-size pieces to be emailed to you every day. The books are complete editions and each instalment takes just a few minutes to read – as much time as it takes to update your Facebook profile.
The American site evolved out of the founders’ realisation that they were spending hours each day on the internet but struggled to find time to read. Further inspiration came when the New York Times serialised classic novels and they found they enjoyed incorporating reading into their daily routine.
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February 26th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Can someone please tell people to stop trying to sell us things that are like books but worse? If I ever want to split a book up into 400 snippets, I’ll just tear the binding off of it. Or better yet, I’ll just buy it in mass market and try reading it–that’s always a good way to get the binding to come off a book.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
This reminds me of the time when I was 8 years old and got chewed out by a teacher for being late to school everyday. “Why weren’t you on time!” she’d yell. “I was reading at home! I’m sorry! Please don’t flog me!” I’d wail. And then she’d look very confused indeed.
I wonder if I should expect a similar situation when I start reading online book snippets on (publishing) company time.
February 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I love Daily Lit. Much of their content is free and you can adjust the frequency with which you receive the snippets. I use it mostly for rereads, since it’s a rarity that I actually fit a reread into my regular reading schedule.
I only read my Daily Lit offerings at work. I can fit in a snippet or two while on hold or when my mind wanders too much to really care about our rear end auto accident victims, or when it’s fifteen minutes before lunch time or quitting time and I can fit in some Moll Flanders or Pride and My Antonia when I’d rather wait to begin a new project.
I guess, what I really want to say is, don’t mock it until you try it.