DailyLit Creates a New Way to Read Books

By Sid Yadav May 14th, 2008

The book bound together a lot of information into a portable format. The eBook questioned it — asking why it had to be something physical and with a hard cover when the digital age allowed for information to be so much more. The eBook Reader, or Kindle, took that forward, combining the portability of the book and the ubiquity of the eBook. And now, DailyLit is taking a horizontal step toward a new concept — subscription-based reading via e-mail or RSS.

Here’s how it works. Like any book store, DailyLit has a bunch of books for everyone to buy. Most free, some a nominal $6.95. You can search through their catalogue, or browse through categories. When you’ve made the purchase, you’re not going to get a hardcover in the mailbox a next day or something to download, but an RSS feed or e-mails going/updating periodically.

Yes, it’s a weird concept, and definitely one that might need some getting used to, but for a daily commuter with an iPhone or BlackBerry, an RSS fanatic, or an e-mail-head, it could prove as somewhat of a solution. And the best thing is, since most books are free and in the public domain, you don’t have to buy and try — just pick a book and see if it suits you.

Most Commented

Me

"The book binded together "

-The book bound together?"

Sid Yadav

Yes. Thank you, English teacher.

bmichael79

Hm. This seems pretty unlikely to work here in the US. I can imagine it taking off in Asia (where this is already really popular), but that's because there are books written specifically for bite-sized reading. I can't imagine this working for major works, where 10 minutes on a phone isn't going to get you much. A much simpler solution - a better way to read the news on your phone, would appeal to a much wider audience.

Sid Yadav

That's a great point. Because most book reading is done at night/bed/free time and usually for a long period of time, this doesn't exactly looks sustainable on a mobile device or RSS reader. But content fitted specifically for this form may do well, as will things like daily bite-sized news.

Thanks for the comment!

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