DailyLit: Books, One Day at a Time

I’m a reader. As a result, I have a lot of books. The problem though is that I buy more books before I’m finished with the original set. Right now, I have about 25 books to read. Some of them are short, and with effort could read a nice chunk of them in a month. The problem is time. With work and school and gaming time, I have trouble sitting down for an hour or more to read. Having an hour commute to work helps this situation a little, but what about once I’m back in school and my commute disappears?

Enter DailyLit, a cool little website that can help remedy my issue.

DailyLit has a collection of books in the public domain available for reading. When you find a book you want to read in their catalog, DailyLit allows you to subscribe to that book via email or RSS (personally, I think that email makes the most sense). From that point on, everyday at a specified time a new section of the book will be delivered to your inbox. These sections take about five minutes to read, which makes it no different than reading a long email. If you finish the section for the day but want to keep reading, a handy link at the bottom of the email allows you to receive the next part of the book automatically.

The only downside of the program is how long it will take to finish a book. I initially subscribed to “Crime and Punishment,” a book I own and have been meaning to read. This novel has been separated into 241 parts, which means it would take me most of the year to finish the book exclusively through DailyLit. However, I plan to read the majority of the book using the copy that I own; DailyLit is currently just an easy way to get started while I read other books. I should also note that the DailyLit emails look great in the iPhone/iPod Touch email app, which is how I mainly read these chapters. The small screen is actually perfect for me. It’s closer to what I’m used to when reading books.

Overall, I’ve found DailyLit to be an excellent service. If you’re trying to find a way to read that one book you never have time for, you might consider giving DailyLit a try.