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DailyLit: Reading in instalments

I recently discovered that it is possible to subscribe to literature on the Web. It is by no means a new thing – after all, some of the most popular classic novelists, such as Dumas and Dickens, wrote some their books in instalments that were eagerly awaited by readers. I decided to try it, and have subscribed to a book I started reading a couple of months ago but have kept pushing aside for other books. Now I can simply read it during my coffee breaks and lunch break at work, instead of at home where I am surrounded by scores of other books that keep diverting my attention from it. The book is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. For the next 286 weekdays I will receive it in instalments in my inbox, from DailyLit.

It will be interesting to see if I manage to stick with it, or whether at some point I will go back to the book.

I think this is an excellent way for people who think they are to busy to read books to relax for a few minutes every day over a good book. DailyLit mostly offers older books with expired copyright, among them many classics, but they have now started offering newer books that are published under a creative commons licence. They have something for most tastes, so check them out.
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Lisa said…
I do this at work too. I signed up for 3 or 4 at a time, so that I could build up quite a few in a row while I read the first one. So now if I have to make a particularly stressful phone call or am on hold, I reward myself with an installment (or 4, depending on how exciting the story is.)

I've completed Little Women and Pride & Prejudice this way. I current am reading Sense & Sensibility, and have part or all of The Woman in White and Middlemarch waiting for me.

I LOVE this method of reading the classics. I know I'd be distracted at home, but at work? Nothing better to do! (but, um. Work.)
July 27, 2007 8:09 pm
Bibliophile said…
Hehe, I know what you mean (about work).

I'm quite grateful to them for including the "receive the next instalment immediately" feature, because it enabled me to to get up to where I had stopped reading the book instead of having to wait 30 days to pick up where I left off or reread several chapters.
July 30, 2007 1:32 pm
JoanneMarie Faust said…
I love Daily Lit. I tell people about it all the time. I've been lagging with my reading of Moll Flanders, though. I love that it comes in 2-3 minute reading installments. I can read one while I'm on hold, or in between tasks at work. I can't wait to pick out my next book.

I read Villette and was thrilled that I could just keep Google translator open on my desktop and fit in any French phrases that appeared. While reading at home I kept being disappointed by my inability to have passages instantly translated for me.
August 06, 2007 7:58 pm
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