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Writing, Reading, and Words
Last checked 11/11/2000

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Word Games
  • Wordle
  • Word Master is exactly like Wordle but you can play as many times as you want instead of the daily dose of Wordle.
  • Waffle is similar to Wordle (it is free, browser based, green and yellow indicators, share results) but challenges you to resolve 6 five letter words at the same time by swapping the given letters. You have to solve the puzzle within 15 swaps.
  • Merriam-Webster Game of the Day - a new word game each day.
  • ClueMaster crossword puzzles and logic games.
  • MacNamara's Band crossword puzzles
  • Michael Curl's Puzzles and wordplay
  • PuzzleDepot's Weekly Crossword
  • Wolinsky's Word Play has a bunch of links to stuff associated with words including Burma Shave Signs, Complex Statements for the Simple-Minded, the Crossword Solver, the Word Wizard, etc.
  • CrossWorld has links to other crossword puzzle sites.
  • Brain Candy is about having fun with words and language.
  • CNN's Crossword Puzzle of the Day has a new one every day if you can stand it.
  • Crossword Puzzle Games
  • Plumb Design Thesaurus has to be the coolest use of Java. It depicts relationships between words in a graphical way.
  • Puzzle Maker creates mazes and word puzzles.
  • Puzzability from the folks that brought us Games Magazine. Word puzzles through java.
  • Puzzle Connection has word puzzles and conundrums.
  • Thinks has all kinds of puzzles and thinking games. They also have software and other products related to the cerebral pursuits.
  • One Across This site helps you with crossword puzzles. You enter the clue phrase and as much of the word as you know. It helps you with the rest. The site also has other word games.
  • World Wide Words has a variety of material that is hard to describe except that it is all about words.
  • Scrabble Helper - when you're really stuck.
  • Save the Words is not really a word game. A bunch of words are displayed that you probably have never heard before. You click on one and the definition is displayed.
Books/eBooks/Reading
  • Overdrive is a free platform (once known as Libby) for Windows, Android, iOS, etc. that allows you to borrow books from your local library and read them on your device. You probably will need a library card (or the electronic equivalent) from your local library and then you go online and download the book (when it is available as the number of loan-outs is limited by licensing).
  • Library Extension If you have a library card to your local library, this Chrome and Firefox extension will tell you whether the book that you are examining on Amazon is available at your library.
  • Best Sites To Get EBooks This 2025 article reviews some sites where you can download ebooks.
  • Book Series In Order is a searchable database of book series that lists the books in publication order and chronological order (if the publication order is significant different from the internal chronological order). Each book in the list has a link to a description of the book plot as well as to Amazon if you would like to purchase the book.
  • 100 Books to Read In a Lifetime from Amazon and GoodReads
  • Five Books is a collection of curated lists of the best books in every category. Great ideas for good reads.
  • Book Marks is to book reviews as Rotten Tomatoes is to movie reviews.
  • New York Times Best Seller List
  • Independents Best Seller List gets its data from the local book stores around the country.
  • LA Times' Best Seller List
  • Publisher's Weekly Best Seller List
  • Top Best Sellers 1900 - 1995
  • International Children's Digital Library has books online for ages 3 thru 13.
  • USA Today's Best Seller List is compiled from actual book sales.
  • The Hugos - awards in science fiction literature.
  • American Booksellers Association includes general news from the book world.
  • New York Books sells books. The site includes reviews.
  • Book Depository ($) sells books. Based in Australia
  • Bookstr has news and articles about books and authors including lists of recommendations.
  • WikiBooks reviews nonfiction books in the classic wiki style where the public can add a comment or entry which is first reviewed by moderators before it is included in the published wiki entry.
  • BookRadio includes interviews of authors via RealAudio.
  • What Should I Read Next - you enter a title or author and the site suggests other books and authors that you might like.
  • Book Depository ($) sells books. Based in Australia and the United Kingdom. Prices are a little higher than elsewhere but it might be easier to browse.
  • Barnes and Noble ($)
  • Amazon ($)
  • Macmillan Computer Publishing actually has a lot of material to browse. You can also buy books.
  • Reviews of Books on Writing from the Writers Write folks.
  • Discovery Online Book Store where you can buy books related to the material on the Discovery Channel.
  • Arts & Letters Daily - serves up a collection of articles for the reader. There is a lot of variety and the writing is pretty good to excellent.
  • Academy of American Poets
  • SFSite has a lot of stuff related to science fiction.
  • Analog is the offspring of Astounding Stories - scifi.
  • 10 Mobile Apps for Book Lovers from the MakeUseOF folks.
  • The OnLine Books Page has all kinds of full length books online for you to read.
  • Bookzz is a large collection of free books to read online or as PDFs.
  • The Gutenberg Project, the mother of all etext pages, has thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of books on line for you to search and read.
  • Classic Reader has over 600 full classic books and over 800 short stories available online.
  • Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia has thousands of books on line for you to search and read.
  • Periodyssey specializes in old printed material.
  • Female Detectives specializes in reviews of books involving female detectives.
  • eBookNet reviews ebooks. Also has reviews of ebook devices and ebook related news.
  • RecordedBooks.com sells recorded books.
  • Hear Now Audio Books sells recorded books.
  • Book Player List has reviews of book player devices.
  • 10 Websites with Free Audio Books
  • FiveBooks is a site that asks experts to recommend five books. Interesting to see what they think are the best books in their field.
  • Bookish.com recommends books after you enter the titles of 4 books that you liked.
  • Sources of Free Ebook is an article from MakeUseOf that reviews a number of sources where you can get free ebooks.
  • BookSifter lists over 80,000 free ebooks in various categories including computers, food, history, etc.
  • AllReaders is a search engine that lets you search for books based on author, title, plot, character, etc.
  • Fantastic Fiction - tracks bibliographies of fiction authors. You can see the titles of the books that they wrote along with their recommendations for other authors.
  • Best SF Books is a list of the best science fiction books according to Adam Doppelt, a science fiction reader. Nice collection of award winners.
  • Critical Reading is about serious reading and writing.
  • Guardian Top 10s is a very British site that shares the top ten lists of a number of authors and pundits.
  • Short Stories is a British site dedicated to the art of the short story.
  • Audible.com sells all kinds of recorded book material.
  • Prarie Home Companion
  • Books on the Web is a searchable index of ebooks that are available on the Web for free.
  • BookCrossing This site wants you to leave books in public places for others to read. You can get BookCrossing stickers to put inside them that instructs the reader to leave the book for someone else when finished.
  • Library Thing - Flickr for books
  • Free Books is an article from the PCWorld folks about where you can find free books.
  • LibriVox - free audio books that have been recorded by public readers.
  • Bookslut is a blog about books.
  • BookRiot is a news and option site about books.
  • Google Books offers free books and magazines that have been made available to the public domain. You can search the material or download the whole issue or book.
  • PDF Genie is an ebook search site.
  • Data Sheet is an ebook search site
  • Scribd is YouTube for written material. The public uploads all kinds of written matieral including tech guides, manuals, books, etc. All is free and probably illegal.
  • Free Computer Books has tech books that you read online or download but they are all free.
  • Free Tech Books
  • 43 Books You Won't Stop Talking About - a collection from the folks at Buzzfeed.
  • National Emergency Library This site is making millions of ebooks available especially for students who are restricted to home schooling. Great source of reference books.
  • Little Known Places to Download Free Ebooks (2020) This article reviews a handful of sites where you can download unusual and interesting reading for your ebook.
Book Reviews and Book Finders
  • New York Times Book Reviews
  • LA Times Book Reviews
  • Complete Review
  • Kirkus Reviews
  • Salon is a publication that reviews movies and books. They also have a chat room.
  • Washington Post Book World has reviews but also has the first chapters of selected books.
  • BookWire includes reviews and announcements of new books.
  • The Library Thing - reviews of books, reader forums. Also has lists of books similar to others that you liked.
  • Goodreads gives you suggestions for books that you might like based on your previous reading experiences. It is owned by Amazon.
  • Storygraph is similar to Goodreads in that it allows you to share your reading experiences with others. It has a more defined rating system than Goodreads, though.
  • Booktrib4 outta 5 has a review community and provides news of the publishing and book industry.
  • BookBrowse helps you find new books to read. It includes a set of reading lists in unusual categories.
  • Guide to Using Goodreads
  • Alternatives to Goodreads This 2020 LifeHacker article reviews a few good alternatives to Goodreads. That is, the sites allow you to see what others like to read.
  • Best Book Review Sites This 2023 MakeUseOf article reviews a near dozen sites that review, recommend, and rate books.
  • Readalikes is a list of authors. You can search for a favorite and the list will show other authors that are similar that you might like.
  • Your Next Read recommends current books to you based on your selections of books that you liked in the past. Links between books are based on ratings and recommendations from the public. Has not been updated since 2010?
  • Fantasy Book Reviews includes a lot of 'best of' categories.
eReaders

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