It pays to check your referrals. I was reviewing today’s stats for Cville Words, and included in the list of today’s referrals was a link to the Google Books entry for The Sheltering Sky. I get quite a few hits on this blog for The Sheltering Sky — maybe it’s something people read in school? I don’t know. Anyway, I followed the link, and — WOW! This Google Books thing is pretty cool. For The Sheltering Sky it lists the publication information, a short summary of the plot, buying information, and a link to Worldcat.org, so you can find a copy in your local library.
That’s all pretty pedestrian, I guess. But then it gets really good — there are scans of selected pages and a “search in this book” feature, lists of on-line reviews, references from web pages (including Cville Words), references from books, references from academic papers, a list of related books, a list of key terms, which are hyperlinked to quotations from the book, and coolest of all, a world map marked with places mentioned in the book. I think this Internet thing may work out after all.
Filed under: books, reference, technology
