Something Fun

Comics

If you're a comic book fan, an art fan, or just someone looking for something to do, check out this website: http://www.coverbrowser.com/.

The site provides cover images to hundreds of comics, from 1950s era Dick Tracy to present day collections of manga.

My personal favorites are for the comic called Mystery in Space that ran from 1951 to 1966. These covers reveal a fixation on Mars, feature a hobo/hitcher who hopes for "Jupiter City or Bust," show a giant scarecrow warning visitors from approaching Earth, & envision the Earth as a cube.

So, check it out. I think all, young or old, will find something of more than moderate amusement.

Music

Pandora is probably one of the best free music sites on the Internet. The site does not allow downloading of music, so don't get your hopes up.

What Pandora does is allows music-lovers to create song or artist-themed "radio stations" that regularly refresh to a new song, very likely a great song you've never heard before. The site allows a listener to give a thumbs up ("I like it") or thumbs down ("Ew!") so that the next song will be more like a song you like or less similar to a song you do not. Also, the site provides links to more information about an artist, a song, or an album.

Also, Pandora permits users to create dozens of radio stations on their accounts (you will have to create an account, but, from my experience, you can use your email address as a user id & your email password as your Pandora password). You can switch from your Rufus Thomas station to your Billie Holiday station to your Ryan Adams station with a simple click, the same way (almost) that you'd change stations in the car.

For more information about Pandora, click here.

Books

If you are an avid reader or book-lover, a great source for sharing your passion for books & learning of other's passions is the social-networking site LibraryThing.

The site allows users to create a list of the top 200 books (adding more than 200 book is available for a fee) he/she would recommend to other readers. The site also connects users with readers having similar interests in styles, genres, or authors, all of which opens up readers to books he/she may never have been aware of.

More importantly, LibraryThing has the potential of connecting individuals which similar tastes to each other, allowing users of the site to build relationships and literary knowledge from all across the globe. Also, users can sign up for discussion groups focusing on a variety of literary genres, age groups, and literacy issues.

The site currently has close to 240,000 readers who have added over 2.2 unique titles to their personal catalogs/libraries. So, you stand an excellent chance of learning more about books or locating someone with whom you'd want to discuss books.

This site is free, but you will need to create a username & password. My recommendation, as always, is to re-use a username & password you have used on another site.

For more about LibraryThing, click here.

========================================================

If you'd like more information about any of these websites, or if you have suggestions of other fun websites like these, email me at playne@bpl.lib.me.us and/or post your suggestion to the blog.