I like the idea of having books available on the Internet, but can't imaging stretching out by the pool with Mr. Lappy teetering on my tummy while I scroll through 1,253 screens of War and Peace in 10- point Times Roman. 

Online books have saved my bacon a few times, though. Last year, when I was up at midnight writing an Internet Odyssey press release, the Project Gutenberg edition of Homer's Odyssey burned a few holes in my screen. Project Gutenberg's been around since 1971, and as of this month they have digitized 608 books. They're all available on the Internet, and are also carried on local bulletin boards and anywhere else they can get the word out. I've lived in dumps where they didn't have 608 books in the entire county; Gutenberg, a volunteer project, has brought great literature to people who would have otherwise been deprived. 

 Electronic texts are also beloved by scholars. You can dip into the complete works of William Shakespeare at MIT. Everything is searchable by word or phrase, which not only brings up the words in context, but also contains a link back to the entire scene where the quote appeared. Don't quite grasp the meaning of swinge-buckler? It's defined in the hypertext glossary as a bully. There is a discussion forum for each play, and the level of talk seemed to be gratifyingly intimidating. If this isn't enough, try the links to other Shakespeare sites, including one on the Globe Theater, which includes a hints on Elizabethan staging and a virtual tour of the restoration. 

If Shakespeare's not your scene, there are a gazillion other authors who have found homes on the Internet. Tolkien is especially well represented. Start out at the Middle Earth Encyclopedia, which contains hundreds of articles about Tolkien's books, or take virtual tours of Tolkien's Oxford and Birmingham. I ended up on the J.R.R. Tolkien Information Page, and came up for air about three hours later. I got information about societies and conventions, downloaded TrueType elvish fonts and grabbed a few maps and paintings. Your Tolkien expedition will also lead you to the home pages of other "Inklings," including a dozen or more sites on C.S. Lewis. Tolkien on the Internet goes beyond being a mere presence: it borders on a cult. 

 Speaking of literary cults, an excellent site is Literary Kicks, which puts On the Road onto the information superhighway. There are large sections on Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, or you can start with Neal Cassady, William S. Burroughs, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso or Michael McClure. There are also pages on the Beat Generation, Beat connections in rock music, films about the beats, Buddhism : the Beat religion, and the origin of the term 'Beat.' There's a Beat bibliography, and there's an ever-growing Beat news page. 

A great place to find new authors is in the iGuide author section. They review the web pages of 91 writers, from classics such as James Joyce and Walt Whitman to a bunch of guys I've never heard of. iGuide also hosts Book Soup, an irreverent look at books and publishing. Recent features have included Cocktail Party Criticism: How to Appear Well Read When You're Not and an illustrated guide to ugly book covers. 

 When John and I went to Switzerland a few years ago we didn't go Klosters to slalom with the jet set: we went to Reichenbach Falls to commune with the ghosts of Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. I read several hundred mystery novels a year, and the Internet has fed this obsession with murder and mayhem. The Mystery Zone is a magazine of mystery, suspense and crime fiction. It reviews dozens of new books every week, conducts in-depth interviews with hot mystery authors, and maintains an image bank of pulp fiction covers that you can use for Windows wallpaper. ClueLass publishes a list of forthcoming books which I print and leave in a prominent place where John is sure to notice the big check marks next to half of the entries. This could be an expensive month: new Patricia Cornwell, Walter Mosley and Julie Smith hardbacks are due out. ClueLass also maintains a list of award-winning mysteries and both sites have huge lists of links to other mystery sites. 

 If I wanted to find out more about Austin writer Mary Willis Walker's latest novel, Under the Beetle's Cellar, I'd go straight to the horse's mouth: Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, her publisher. A peek into their new releases section will give me a sample chapter from her book, a biography, a six-minute audio clip and a picture of the cover. I can send her an e-mail message or find out when she'll be in San Antonio (September 27, for the Express-News book and author luncheon.) BDD also gives me a daily sample from one of their crossword puzzle books, an online catalog, a section for young readers, an interactive chat forum and interviews with some of their authors. You don't get an audio clip with Dennis Rodman's Bad As I Wanna Be (thank goodness for small favors) but you can enter the Rodman hair trivia quiz to win an autographed copy of the book. 

 The book publishers' sites on the Internet are some of the best I've visited. The Penguin site is fantastic. Although I'm not a Stephen King fan, I downloaded their serial screen saver of his new paperback, The Green Mile. As each new installment of the book is released, Penguin offers a new episode of the screen saver. I've uploaded it to the bulletin board for the King fans out there who don't yet have Internet access. In keeping with its highbrow image, the Penguin site also has lesson plans for teachers and study guides for book discussion groups. Books@Random, the Random House site, also carries teacher and reading group guides. @Random publishes seven online newsletters, including Love Letters, for romance fiction, Murder on the Internet for mysteries and the Del Rey Internet Newsletter for science fiction and fantasy. They host the Random Cafe, where you can chat with other readers. 

 You can buy books on the Internet, usually at a substantial discount. A good one is Book Stacks Unlimited. Online since 1991, they offer more than 400,000 books on their virtual shelves. Each book in the store features a cover graphic, reviews, the table of contents, and an excerpt. 

 The American Bookseller's Association Web site, BookWire is so good that it alone is worth the cost of Internet access. Start with their flagship publication, Publisher's Weekly. You can read their bestseller lists on the Internet three days before the tabloid hits the newsstands. PW carries a newswire and a handful of feature articles as well. Next, move onto the Boston Book Review, which carries reviews and essays and interviews with authors. The Hungry Mind Review follows a monthly theme for its reviews and criticism: recent ones include science and faith, the working life and heroes and villains. There is a discussion area and a bookstore where you can order autographed copies of books. Other magazines within the BookWire umbrella include the Computer Book Review and the Quarterly Black Review of Books. They have an index of more than 900 publishers, 500 booksellers, 500 libraries and 1,000 other book-related Internet resources. They claim that if it has to do with books and it's on the Internet you can find it here. I believe them. Don't miss Mort Gerberg's daily literary cartoon. 

Susan Ives, a former advertising copywriter and army public affairs officer, is the owner of Square 1 Internet Training and Consulting, the co-chair of the Alamo PC Communications SIGs and the Webmaster for the Alamo PC Home Page.