Computers or Books?

Well, not always in opposition. I have mentioned a neat little service, DailyLit, in the past but this month is the second anniversary of their founding and I thought I would bring attention to them again.

On the DailyLit site, you can pick from many classics (free) and they will be delivered in segments by e-mail to you. You determine the frequency and schedule of e-mails. When they first launched I tried them out and enjoyed both their selection and the experience. I usually am not a fan of electronic reading. There is nothing, from my perspective, that trumps a real live book. However, there are many titles which I might wish to read but about which I am not overly excited. From that perspective, lot's of little dollops, at five or ten minutes a pop, makes for an easy read. And if you want more, you can always have the next instalment instantly e-mailed to you.

I have not tried it with the kids yet but it occurs to me that this might be handy for them as well. They already spend enough time on the computer and I am less than confident in the uniformly high quality of what they might be exposed to. Setting them up to receive daily installments of, say, The Count of Monte Cristo, might sneak in some more interesting material into their reading parameters. Of course it might just be deleted as well but it doesn't hurt to experiment.

DailyLit also has contemporary books that are available on a commercial basis.