Books Unlimited: Yes, the URL is a bit convoluted but once you've established a correct connection, you'll be delighted at the great selection of good reads at this site.
It's a true bibliophile's hangout with a 'News' section that details latest developments in the literary world, the latest charts under 'Bestsellers', literary gossip in 'The Loafer', 'Poem of the week' and lots of reviews under categories ranging from 'Fiction' to 'Travel'.
There's also plenty of trade news that should interest those involved in the international English-language book business.
Most of the articles are reproduced from venerable English newspapers like The Guardian and Observer, and such resource sections as 'A century in books: Original reviews 1900-2000', 'Books in brief: Whistlestop guide to the new releases' and 'Top 10s: Experts' reading lists' will excite voracious readers with a craving for well-written reviews and summaries.
It's a simple and fast-loading site that embodies all the virtues of a well-designed online publication.
Classic Films: With "hundreds of images, many audioclips, and comprehensive bibliography", plus a slew of "informative articles on movies and filmmaking", this film 'Palace' makes an excellent guide to Hollywood’s Golden era and the great classic (black and white) films.
The trip starts right from the early days of cinema, from the silent classics of Charles Chaplin to the charged talkies of Humphrey Bogart and Marlon Brando.
There's a useful site map that lets you see the table of contents and a search section lets you narrow down films or cinema topics that interest you.
The articles are insightful and even authoritative, and often you won't be able resist the impulse to download the images of the originals posters for the big films to your hard (or soft) disk.
The main page, which reflects the beauty of black and white (or should that be black and gray?), is a cinch to navigate. Once you're done here, you might also want to check out the similar-sytled Classic Movie Shrine, another terrific resource for classic black and white films.
The eQUESTRIAN: This may not be the ultimate online resource for equestrianism, but it's probably the most comprehensive of the better sites devoted to horse sports.
Besides offering reports on the major international and British showjumping, eventing and dressage events, it offers horse lovers from around the world a chance interact with one another in a pleasant virtual community environment.
Under 'Menu', you have links to 'News', 'Show Jumping', 'Endurance', 'Dressage', 'Eventing', Driving Trials', Riding Clubs' and 'Pony Clubs', while the 'Resources' include 'Marketplace', 'Bookstore' and 'Press Releases'.
There're also hyperlinks to equestrian events in other parts of the world, including a direct connection to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
And if you're having problems with your horse, you can e-mail 'Agony Aunt' Vicky Collins, a distinguished eventer.
If you still need more horse sports news, you might want to try The Equestrian Times which is pretty strong on international coverage.
Howzstat! International Cricket Database: This Australian site could well be the hardcore cricket buff's online paradise. As the title suggests, it's packed with statistics -- a mountain of information that lovers of the game will have a blissful time scaling.
Besides reports on the latest major events and info on recent and and forthcoming matches, it offers an intriguing country-by-country 'Player Menu' that lists all the major achievements of all-time cricket greatse.
The 'Hot 50', 'Head to Head' ("Series averages of every Test rubber played") and 'Records' ("The highest, greatest and especially the most!") links are chock-full of trivia, and there's a search link that offers "quick access to your favorite players".
The images of classic cricket paintings are also an intriguing feature at this easy-to-access home page.
The Mother Goose Pages: Looking for nursery rhymes for the kids (or the kid in you)? Then this is where you should look for all the favorites -- "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Wee Willie Winkie" etc -- and more.
The rhymes are grouped by theme -- 'Animals and Others Beasts', 'Bedtime', 'Folks and Things They Do' and so on. Since they're maily text-based, they load up fast, which should help things if you're thinking of printing them out.
There's a link to an alphabetical master list of the rhymes as well as connections to such resources as 'On Reading Nursery Rhymes With Children of Varying Ages' and 'Recommended Books & Resources'.
It may be a bit dry and dull-looking without illustrations or drawings, but then images might just slow downloading.
The Official Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Site: Yes, it may seem like we're jumping on the 'Olympics Online' bandwagon by highlighting this site but it'd be a shame not to do as the games have just begun.
It's a bright and oh-so-blue site that looks a bit too crammed but is thankfully not a navigation nightmare.
You get links to 'Sports', 'Athletes', 'Countries', 'About the Games', 'Sydney', 'Kid', 'Store', 'Venues', 'Paralympics' and 'FanM@il' (neat!) on top and the latest news in hyperlinked headlines.
The 'Athlete of the day' is an interesting feature as is the interactive 'Get involved' section.
It's a well-designed site that should keep you constantly updated on all the events for the next few weeks. But if you don't find the results fast enough here, you should try the CNNSI.com Sydney 2000 page.
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