Help for Reading Classics

Word Nerd, as many of you know, doesn't really like reading classics. She looks at as the literary equivalent of eating salad -- not something she really loves, but feels she has to do for her health. She has whined in the past about slogging through Count of Monte Cristo and feeling a bit disappointed by Picture of Dorian Gray.

She's trying to read the next classic in a new way and it might work.

DailyLit.

Word Nerd signed up last week with DailyLit and chose to read Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche. It was one of the classics that was on her list of I-really-should-read-this-someday books. Over the next 153 business days, one chunk of the novel will be delivered to her email. By April, or so, she should be done with it.

The selection is growing at DailyLit, but their early offerings aren't too bad. Want to read more of the Bard's plays? They have those. Want to tackle War and Peace? It'll take two years, but that's an option too. Want something short? You can get through all of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in 41 installments. Want to read a classic Word Nerd truly liked? Sign up for The Scarlet Pimpernel.

The only problem, as Word Nerd sees it, is the lack of a tangible book. Word Nerd has always held that part of the joy of reading is holding the book. Still, she'll keep at it and see how this format goes for reading the classics.