Tiny Pearls of Wisdom

In this country, we're firm believers in educating ourselves—we just wish it didn't take so long. But not to worry: self-help is on the way. David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim's "The Intellectual Devotional: American History" collapses Uncle Sam's story into 365 single-page passages to be read one a day for a year. "We're trying to give people confidence," says Oppenheim, a producer for NBC's "Today" show. "The War of 1812 can seem exotic at first." The Web site Dailylit, meanwhile, sends literature by the byte: free chunks of classic books that arrive daily in your IN box. "How do you eat an elephant?" says cofounder Susan Danziger. "One bite at a time."

As a sales strategy, selling nibbles of wisdom is a proven winner. The first intellectual self-help books date to at least the mid-18th century, when Englishman Isaac Watts scored an Old and New World best seller with "The Improvement of the Mind." By the 1920s, less-educated adults routinely reached for the Little Blue Book series of pocket-size literature to enhance their cocktail chatter. More-recent hits in the genre include "The Concise Guide to Sounding Smart at Parties" and 1987's "Cvltvre Made Stvpid." (Yes, that's how it's spelled.) Last year the first edition of "The Intellectual Devotional" was a best seller. "We tapped a genuine hunger for learning," says Oppenheim. Ditto for Dailylit: after growing to more than 100,000 users, the six-month-old site added a paid subscription service featuring less Tolstoy and more self-help titles like "1001 Smartest Things Ever Said." It's just the kind of learning Americans adore: instant, painless and cheaper than going back to college.

© 2007