DailyLit

About a month ago, I stumbled across a site called DailyLit. Essentially, it's a book-by-email service. Its working theory is that most people "spend hours each day reading email, but don't find the time to read books". Instead of trying to get you to spend less time with your inbox and more time with a good book, it simply send the book to your inbox.

DailyLit boasts a 200-title collection of public domain books. Each book is broken down into five-minute fragments. Currently, I'm subscribed to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Personal Memoirs of General U.S. Grant. The former is divided into 131 parts, while the latter is broken into 305 parts. Every morning, I receive a fragment from each.

It's a different way to enjoy a book. While it seems a bit ridiculous to stretch a book out over several months, it makes perfect sense for folks who don't have huge blocks of time to set aside for reading. And for those who have a few extra minutes and want to get through a book faster, DailyLit offers a link in each email to send them the next fragment. I'm sorry for sounding like a commercial, but I just felt the need to rave about the site.