One great work,
every day.
A novel, a poem, a play or an essay each morning, chosen for the date it arrives. Wuthering Heights on Valentine's Day. Dracula on Halloween. The whole book waiting behind it.
The day page
Everything about the great books.
The story behind each one, its author, and where to go next.
Each morning's work comes with a piece written to make you want it, a line worth keeping, what a great reader made of it, the life of whoever wrote it, and the gist in plain words for when the blurb leaves you guessing.
Today, Monday 19 October: War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
What this is
Not a reading list. Not a feed.
One work each morning, with a short piece written to make you want to read it, and the whole book behind it if it takes. Some days it will not be for you. That is the point: keep your line in the water and one of them bites, and you have found a book you will press on everyone you meet.
The right book on the right day.
Every one of these is in the app’s own year
The Library
Not the blurb. The book.
Complete books, properly typeset and read inside the app, with more shelved every week. Real page turns, hold a word for the dictionary, your place kept to the word, and no signal needed. Many carry their original language beside the translation: Anna Karenina in Russian, Dante in Italian, the Odyssey in Greek.
The painted worlds
Worlds painted by hand.
The day's work arrives on a background made for that book alone. A ship burning on a black sea for Moby-Dick. Lit windows for Pride and Prejudice. One lamp on the moor for Wuthering Heights.
The weather
Every book gets its own weather.
Storm, shore, fireside. A storm for Frankenstein, the open sea for Moby-Dick, rain on a train window for Anna Karenina. Mix it yourself or leave it to the book.
Press play: these are the app's own recordings.
Reading paths
Lost? Take a path.
Curated routes through the canon: The Russian Soul, The American Century, Books That Were Banned. Or live inside one big book for a while, a chapter a day, alongside everyone who signed up.
- Sets off 19 October: Next to set offThe Bells and the RavenEdgar Allan Poe13 days
- Sets off 19 October: The Tao Te ChingLaozi21 days
- Sets off 19 October: The Decameron: Ten DaysGiovanni Boccaccio10 days
- Sets off 21 October: The Diary of a NobodyGeorge and Weedon Grossmith24 days
- Sets off 23 October: The Odyssey: The Long Way HomeHomer24 days
Laurels
Finish a classic. Earn its laurel.
A medal painted for the book you just read. The white whale for Moby-Dick. The windmill for Don Quixote. Claim it, pin it, and start on the next.
The reading life
Become the reader you keep meaning to be.
A streak worth keeping.
Read, and the year fills in. Miss a day or two and a freeze bridges the gap.
Which did you love more?
Your own ranked canon, built by asking which of two books you liked more. Every ranking is a self-portrait.
Bloomy
A friend who has read everything.
Ask what a passage is doing. Ask what to read next. Bloomy has read the canon and, more usefully, your log, and every book, author and path it names opens at a tap. It talks about books. Nothing else.
Also inside
And the rest of the shelf.
- Reading guides for the books that have beaten you before.
- Where you left off, recapped to the page and not one word past it.
- The Commonplace Book, for every line you keep.
- A literary word a day.
- What happened in literature today, and the thought Tolstoy chose for it.
- Eleven reading languages.
- Home and Lock Screen widgets.
- Goodreads import.
- All of it without a signal.
I open this app every morning instead of the usual social media doomscrolling, and I actually look forward to it. The simplicity and beauty make it so peaceful.
4.8 on the App Store
Over 20,000 downloads
Love this app!!
Favorite App of all time!
Easy and desirable to open and read.
Absolutely love it! Look forward to it every day.
Easily one of my favorite apps. Highly recommended.
Exposes you to a wealth of authors and their ideas.
Good for inspiring new reading ideas, and nicely crafted.
An inspired way to find the next book to change your life.
A dream for book lovers. I love how rich the literature is.
So amazing, highly recommend. A great way to expand your reading.
Great to remind oneself that literature is not only a school subject.
I’ve rediscovered the love of learning. This tool is my new best friend.
This app is like joining a fantastic book club. I wish I had found it sooner.
I love this app and appreciate the thought and care that are clearly put into creating it.
This app makes me feel like I’m sitting among the great authors themselves. It has gravitas.
It’s beautifully designed... the content library is impressive. I can’t recommend this app more.
The writing is FANTASTIC! Every little thing seems so well-thought-out, every word so deliberate.
Truly exceptional in both software design and literary guidance. The paid version is worth every penny.
This app is so worth it. I don’t feel I have enough words to describe ALL OF THE THINGS THIS APP CAN DO!
Somehow finds the balance between enough content to give you an idea of the book without feeling like a chore.
This app makes reading an enjoyable experience again... I could write a novel about the greatness of this app.
I just read the reading guide for Mrs. Dalloway and it was so well written that it was truly a pleasure to read!
I didn’t hesitate to sign up... It’s been one of the highlights of my week to recommend it to my friends and family.
Excellent app! It inspired me to dive into the classics in a way I never would have otherwise. 10/10, would recommend.
Features are being added with what seems like every day. Very responsive and kind team behind it. Great app in general.
If you like literature, download this app ASAP. Very well thought out, frequently updated with new content and challenges.
First off, it's beautiful. The developer was clearly mindful of who their audience would be. Where has this been for years?
The number one app for classical literature. Beautifully designed, with a refined, knowledgeable, and broad selection of works.
It has all of the features I would have built in if I made the app for my own reading. The interface is elegant and easy to use.
Very diligently thought out. It brings an organized way of reading every day. Already incredible, and it can only go up from here.
This is the most useful app I’ve used in a decade. I never imagined reading could be such an amazing and immersive experience. Wow!
It keeps me eclectic and presents more literature than I had time to read in school. It’s unitary and things fit. Rounds me out intellectually.
This app is clearly made by people who care about the product rather than people just trying to make a buck. Everything about it brightens my day.
I didn’t realize I needed this in my life until I discovered it and the DAILY. It’s simply incredible. I can’t express my admiration for it enough.
The mix between reminiscing on quotes from novels I’ve read, and learning about ones I’ve maybe heard but not looked into, is very exciting and engaging.
I thought I was fairly well-read until this app started surfacing names I’d never encountered. That mix of the familiar and the unknown keeps me opening it every day.
This app is reintroducing me to all of the great authors and ideas that we superficially learned in school. It is a dose of daily wisdom and deep thinking and I adore it.
It’s like they made it just for me. All the best books in a beautiful UI, and the Tolstoy calendar is a great touch. I messaged the team in-app and they added three books for me the same day. Amazing!
Multiple degrees in engineering, I missed something along the way in liberal arts. I really appreciate the way this app is introducing me to much of what I missed. Overall, it’s a great way to start the day.
I am referring to the frictionless way one can engage with amazing minds from many eras. I love the daily features and the immersions are great fun. For anyone wishing to start a reading habit, you must try The Daily Canon.
A great addition to one’s daily routine. I learn about new works, quotes, and vocabulary each day. It cultivates knowledge a little bit at a time, in easily digestible amounts. The people behind this app are doing good work.
Genuinely so well crafted. The classics are well picked, the app is gorgeous, and there are so many hidden little features to discover, half of them literary references. You can tell so much care went into this hidden gem. It even has a widget. Just perfect.
I’m a busy mom and I often find myself without adequate time (or mental bandwidth) to read the way I wish I could. This is an amazing “bite sized” bit of reading that makes me feel like I accomplished something, and I always learn something new about a book or author.
This is exactly the type of app people yearn for. It’s a way to connect to literature but also with the team that puts genuine replies and recommendations. And it’s a human team which makes it all the more personal. This app helps find new reads and could be a new way of reading.
Truly, this is my favorite app. I love watching new things being added all the time, you are all making something wonderful. My favorite part is probably the Immersions, and it’s awesome they’re tied to a relevant start time with a cohort. The app has been an incredibly cozy, intriguing, and fun place to explore.
I have used Daily Canon for a few weeks now, but it was today that I fell in love with it. The app served me a poem on the very day the poet wrote it (206 years ago to the day, it was Keats) and this pairing, along with the thoughtful curation changed my whole understanding of the poem, the season and the wider human condition.
From Hal
One work, today. Tomorrow, another.
I built this thing, at first for nobody but me, and I still open it every morning before anything else, which is the only product test I trust really.
How that happenedA gift
Give someone a year of reading.
Folio for a year, or for life, sealed with a note in your own words. We send it to you to pass on, or straight to their inbox on the morning you choose.
For Anna
1 year of Folio on The Daily Canon
“For the long winter evenings, and for finally finishing Middlemarch.”
from Henry
Your code
CANON-7K2M-QX4P
A lifetime of literature, one day at a time.
Waiting on your lock screen every morning.
Free to download. The daily work is free for good.
Keep your line in the water.
