Return to Links of the Week Archive

*bylines*
This website specializes in fine writing, and offers nonfiction stories, novellas, books, essays, and articles on a wide range of subjects, all for the price of a good cup of coffee. The *bylines* project is a new publishing concept which removes the barriers between writers and readers by dispensing with packaging, binding, printing, distribution, etc., thus keeping prices low and allowing readers to select only the stories that interest them. Readers download stories to print out or read on the computer, and pay by credit card; prices vary from less than 50 cents for short pieces to $1.99 for books. Browsing is free, and the website has helpful instructions for newbies. The writing is selected for quality and enduring content, and eventually may include fiction and poetry. The website links to WriterL, a private listserve in which writers and editors engage in discussions of the writing craft.
http://www.bylines.org

Guide to Grammar and Writing
This comprehensive grammar and writing guide is an excellent reference and study tool, prepared by Professor of English/Humanities Charles Darling for his college English courses and the online public. Find advice on everything from subject/verb agreement, rules for using commas, and proofreading symbols to basic principles of composition. Test your knowledge with 76 challenging computer-graded quizzes. There is a reference list of style guides and other useful books, plus links to many online writing resources. You can ask Grammar English any questions you still have, after poring over the 1300 questions already answered here. And for fun, check out Anomalous Anonymies: grammar goofs and uproarious misspellings from student papers and other sources.


BookWire
If you love books, visit this website. Here you can find out what new books are coming out, and get daily literary news, reviews, and features. A newsletter called FLAP gives readers a daily peek behind the scenes in the publishing industry. Users can join discussions and poetry workshops at the Soapbox. The reading room has links to many online books, with additional book resources such as author information, literary mailing lists, newsgroups, and a book awards index. Make connections here with book clubs, online readers' clubs, and poets' and writers' clubs, and find links to author websites, booksellers, book information indexes, book production and marketing services, resources for young readers, trade organizations, wholesalers and distributors, writing resources, and libraries.
http://www.bookwire.com

The Louisa May Alcott Web
Q: Who was born on the 333rd day of the year, has had books on the bestseller list over 100 years after her death, and has a crater on Venus named after her? A: Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), one of the greatest female writers of the19th century. Her most famous book, Little Women, has been produced as a film several times. Her other novels, poems, short stories, fairy tales, and essays touch on a wide range of human experience, including love, politics, work, illness, death, transcendentalism, communes, and hashish. This website is a study supplement for teachers and students, and a delight for Alcott enthusiasts. Among its over 75 links are two books, nine short stories, and over 20 photographs and illustrations. Here visitors can read through her letters and journals, browse news articles about Louisa and her books, and see pictures of Orchard House, where she lived as a child. The site also has a bulletin board where collectors and Alcott fans can post requests or items for sale, and a rare book dealers' page.


Animals, Myths and Legends
Myths and legends tell us about the relationship between animals and the world's indigenous peoples, the first explanations of how the world began, how people came to be, and other mysteries. The ancient wisdom in myths and legends can help modern people live in harmony with nature. Using cartoon characters as guides, this website explores animal myths and legends from around the world. Kids can read the Australian story of How Kangaroo Got His Tail; the Native American Huron story of Big Turtle; the English tale of Spider, Hare and the Moon; the Korean story of The Ungrateful Tiger; and many more. The site is the first stage in the development of an interactive game on CD-ROM. Children are encouraged to contribute to the website by sending in legends from their cultures, or made-up stories of their own.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~oban

Power to the Imagination
Here's a site that explores art, literature, phantasy, and horror. The central theme is imagination and the realms it opens; the theme is enhanced with links to famous works of art and classic books. See scans of art from Max Ernst, Pieter Breughel, and others here, or delve into the dark side with poems by Edgar Allen Poe, early artists' renderings of Dracula, and Mary Shelley's original image of the Frankenstein monster. Users can add to a spooky story, play a game, or leave a question at the forum; there are plenty of chances to interact. The site was made for an international contest named ThinkQuest that encourages students to use the World Wide Web as a learning tool.
http://library.advanced.org/10664

Poetic Express
Poetic Express is a website that was created to bring successful contemporary poets to the Internet. Here visitors can read the poetry of many guest writers from around the world. Biographical information and illustrations are published with many of the poems. A section called Poetic Future Express has works from new poets and experimental works by established poets. The Student Zone, for grades 3 though 12, was created to encourage young poets by publishing their work. Look here also for schedules of poetry reading events and book releases.
http://www.sacramento-news.com/peindex.htm

Myths and Legends
This website is a comprehensive list of mythology resources, including cultures from all over the world. Here readers can explore Biblical tales, Hindu legends, Bengali folklore, world creation stories, ghost stories, the Arabian Nights, Robin Hood and King Arthur, the Odyssey of Homer, the Kalevala, the Mabinogeon, and more. There are links to Near Eastern, Indo-Iranian, East Asian, Greek and Roman, Norse/Teutonic, Finno-Ugric, Slavic and Baltic, British and Celtic, Frankish, French and Carolingian, Spanish, Basque, Native American, Australian Aborigional, Polynesian, African, and Caribbean mythologies. In addition, there are some links that provide excursions into gothic horror, early fantasy, and science fiction. The site provides reviews of mythology and folklore sites on the WWW; links to online encyclopedias, dictionaries, archives, and newsgroups relating to mythology; and a list of offline sources such as books and other publications, museums, literary and storytelling societies, and university courses.
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cbsiren/myth.html

Bulfinch's Mythology, The Age of Fable
Here is a beautifully illustrated, annotated, and hyperlinked presentation of Bulfinch's Mythology, The Age of Fable, one of the main books which popularized Greek mythology in the West during the past two centuries. Bulfinch wrote The Age of Fable primarily as a work of popular readable entertainment rather than a scholarly translation; in this edition, key words are linked to references for readers who want to explore further, including references to poets and works of poetry. The entire volume is not yet completed here, but there are many stories from Greek and Roman mythology, plus chapters on Beowulf and the Druids. Additional links on mythology are listed, and a special search engine makes the site easy to use.


Banned Books On-line
The issue of censorship is a hot topic on the Internet. This web page has pointers to literary works on the Internet that have at one time been censored. The books featured here range from The Bible to Little Red Riding Hood; some examples from classic literature are Ulysses by James Joyce, Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio's Decameron, and various editions of The Arabian Nights. Books have been banned for political, religious, and moral reasons in the USSR, France, Greece, England, the United States and many other countries around the world. Other books have been censored of certain passages considered offensive during various time periods; the efforts of Thomas Bowdler to "clean up" Shakespeare's plays gave rise to the expression "bowdlerize". Sexual mores caused many books to be banned in the last century; more recently, books have been censored because of racial or lifestyle sensitivity. Visit this web page for a discussion of censorship throughout history, and censorship as it exists even today.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/banned-books.html

Paleobook
Paleobook has reviews of fiction and nonfiction books on the subjects of paleontology, archaeology, paleoanthropology, and spirituality, for adults, teens, young teens, and children. Reviewed here are fictions like The Lost World, Indiana Jones, and The Celestine Prophesy in the "prehistoric adventure", "lost worlds" and "spiritual thriller" sub-genres, and nonfiction works for both non-technical and technical fans. Videos and audio books are also covered, and there are movie clips from films like The Island of Dr. Moreau, Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Paleo-Adventurers' Club is a forum to discuss books and share ideas; the News and Controversy page presents the latest hot issues such as sheep cloning and new discoveries about the Sphinx. The site also provides paleontology-related hot links, a search engine, and links for buying books at discount prices.
http://www.paleobook.com

A Haiku Homepage
Haiku is a form of poetry popular in Japan, which is becoming more widely appreciated around the world in this century. Haiku writers are challenged to convey a vivid impression in only 17 Japanese characters. In Japan these poems are valued for: Their lightness, their simplicity, their openness, their depth. People have tried to translate the Haiku into an English form using no more than 17 syllables, arranging these often in lines of 5-7-5 syllables, avoiding similes and metaphors, and retaining Japanese values. There are haiku here by Basho (1644-94), one of the greatest writers, and links to Haiku sites on the Internet. Visitors are encouraged to send in their efforts.
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~pka/haiku.html

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The complete works of William Shakespeare are available at this website, categorized into comedies, tragedies, historical plays, and poetry. Plays are also listed alphabetically and chronologically. Visitors can search the texts, consult the glossary, read the FAQ, and participate in a discussion group. There are links to many Shakespeare resources on the Internet, including Bartlett's familiar Shakespearean quotations, Shakespeare performances and festivals, university courses, encyclopedia articles, scholarly commentaries and criticism, literary journals, texts and secondary materials, Shakespeare performances on film, paintings and illustrations of Shakespeare's work, news about reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, and general Renaissance resources.
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/

Scrolls from the Dead Sea
Scrolls From the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship, is an Exhibit at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. These scrolls have been a subject of intense public interest, raising questions about the people who hid them away, the period in which they lived, and the secrets they reveal. The Library's exhibition describes the historical context of the scrolls and the Qumran community; the story of their discovery 2,000 years later; and the challenges and complexities connected with scroll research. The scrolls and scroll fragments comprise a voluminous library, dating from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E. This greatest manuscript find of the twentieth century sheds insight into centuries pivotal to both Judaism and Christianity. There are tens of thousands of scroll fragments, presenting almost one thousand different compositions written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. All the books of the Bible except Esther are represented, in addition to apocryphal and sectarian compositions. Visitors to this website can read translations of the scrolls and look at photographs of the actual scrolls. The online exhibit includes images of 12 scroll fragments and 29 other objects. There are also resource materials for teachers, a glossary, and information on ordering an interactive CD-ROM of the exhibit.
http://4-writers.com