CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: WORLD WIDE WEB IS GREAT PLACE TO YELL FOR LITERACY AND BOOK SITES (COLUMN 53)

Cybertip: Check out our royal tribute to Princess Diana, which appeared in Sunday's edition. You can find it at www.semissourian.com/diana

Today is YELL day, which stands for Youth, Education, Literacy and Learning. As such, we thought it appropriate to highlight some of the most popular book sites on the Internet.

These book sites are pretty handy. You can read thousands of book reviews, find the hottest selling book, buy a book, or even find the name of an elusive author and learn more about him or her.

If you're talking about books, you have to start at the largest site on the Internet. They modestly claim to be the Earth's biggest bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com

Joni: What I want to know: Is Amazon Books a real place or a virtual store?

Peggy: This site offers 2.5 million titles, which it says is more than 14 times as many as the largest chain superstore. I think it's an Internet store. Who would have shelf space for 2.5 million books?

Joni: You can browse book categories, read reviews or excerpts. They also have interviews with authors. Also, you can order up most any book online. It's a comprehensive site.

Peggy: Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, this bookstore is open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. They'll even recommend books for you. When your favorite author releases a new title, they'll send you an e-mail notification.

Joni: They'll also e-mail you new noteworthy books on your favorite subjects. If you're still not sure what to read, check out more than 50,000 book reviews back to 1980 on file at online edition of the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com

Peggy: See the word books in the upper right-hand corner? That's where you click, even though the word doesn't look like a link.

Joni: You will have to register, but it's free. The hard part is finding a name no one else has.

Peggy: You can search by title and author, if you want to know what their reviewers think about your favorite books. You can also find the expanded best-seller list -- the top 30 titles. You can only find it on the web.

Joni: If you're feeling talkative, join the roundtable discussion groups.

Peggy: The new discussion group is Jack Kerouac, writer or typist?

Joni: Ouch, these guys play hardball.

Peggy: You can also read the first chapter of some books on the site, like that hot best seller, "Men Giving Money, Women Yelling." It's a new one on me.

Joni: Peggy, maybe it's time to write our best seller. Another comprehensive site about books on the Internet can be found at

http://www.bookwire.com

Peggy: You can find out if your favorite author is visiting a bookstore near you. Personally, I'm not an author groupie unless Dr. Seuss comes.

Joni: Let's admit it, we both went out to get the Cat in the Hat's pawprint autograph at the West Park Mall.

Peggy: This site goes beyond traditional book reviews. You learn more about book publishing, poetry and people who make their living in the field. It also has links to electronic texts in the public domain, which means you can download an entire book directly to your computer free.

Joni: There's also a place called Chub's Choice, which is the site's opinionated book reviewer. He'll tell you whether a book is a pipperoo or a stinkeroo. Tell it like it is, Chub.

Peggy: Are you a literary expert? Then you might find a real challenge at the First Line book site.

http://pc159.lns.cornell.edu/firsts/

Joni: Someone needs to tell these universities to get more user-friendly addresses. They're often long and convoluted. Let's try out the warm-up exercises.

Peggy: "We called him Old Yeller." I can answer that. "In a whole in the ground, there lived a hobbit." I know this one too. The Hobbit! I like this game.

Joni: Now that they've suckered you in ... let's try a regular category, whiz kid.

Peggy: There are about 20 categories, including "Boo," "I Saw the Movie" and "Periods are for Sissies." Let's try the movie category.

Joni: Here's one we know. "Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife."

Peggy: It's "The Wonderful Wizard of OZ" by Frank Baum, and I must admit I've never read it. But I've seen the movie billions and billions of times. It's my daughter, Laura's, favorite movie.

Joni: You get the picture. It's quick and you can easily get the answer. If you want to share some of your favorite literary sites with friends, try e-mailing them a special postcard.

http://www.just-so.com

Peggy: These cards have literary quotes from authors. Let's try Alice in Wonderland. There are six choices with such famous quotes from the Caterpillar to Alice: "Who are you?" As he talks, smoke rings come out of his mouth.

Joni: When you click on a card, you get the whole paragraph from the book. Then it's like any other postcard, type in your name, recipient's name and message. I love postcard sites.

Peggy: Where are your favorite literary sites on the web? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.