Friday, November 09, 2007

More on DailyLit

I am currently on subscription with DailyLit for The Moon and Sixpence, The Idylls of the King and The Bacchae. It has been less than a week since I started the subscription, but it feels like something I can stay with – at least for a while longer.

I had some problems initially with reading off the screen for long periods, but when I enlarged the text on my screen, it seems to help. Thankfully I possess enough self-esteem not to feel bad about reading like an old lady.

This little experiment at least has supported what I have always known – that I am a traditional "book-in-hand" kind of reader. Halfway through The Moon and Sixpence, I received a physical copy of the novel in the mail; I had mooched it last month and because there was some delay in sending it out, I forgot about it until its surprising appearance.

So, what did I do? I proceeded to underline (with a pencil) the significant passages in the novel – flagged with coloured Post-It strips for future reference. Now, you can't do that on an email.

But DailyLit is helpful in breaking down the epic poem that is The Idylls of the King into more digestible installments. I often do not complete these long epics because of the lack of stamina. Maybe small, regular reading is the way to not lose steam. Will report later if I should be able to finish reading Idylls and Bacchae.

3 comments:

Sharon said...

I'm a book-in-hand kind of person, too, although I think e-books are great for titles that can no longer be found in print. I don't mind reading short stories online too much, as those can be printed for convenience.

Anonymous said...

Not having a book in hand is the reason why I am a bit apprehensive to subscribe to something from DailyLit. That and the fact that I already spend enough time each day reading from screen (with the huge blogroll I have ;-)). But like Sharon said, printing short stories might be a good idea. Although, then you run into the missing book argument again... ;-)

darkorpheus said...

Ex Libris I'm okay with the short stories online - it's the loooong epic stuff like "Idylls of the King" which will kill me at the end. Or maybe just blind me.

My first choice will always be the book though - even if it's out of print, I think I'll still checkout abebooks.com or alibris.com for an available copy - if I want it enough.

Myrthe The blog reading does put a strain on the eyes, doesn't it? Actually, if I see a post that's a little too long, I tend to avoid reading those. ;p

Which may explain why my attention span is getting shorter.