Sundry Sites is a list of blogs and web sites that aren’t really book-related—at least not directly—but that may be of as much interest to BiblioBuffet’s readers as they are to me. I have been a longtime fan of the ones listed here under “Writers’ Resources,” and they should be mandatory reading for those hoping to be published. For the shopper in all of us, I have listed several museums, library shops and other places that carry some fantastic literary items. And under “Fun & Games,” you’ll find a few sites that I love for their entertainment value. Enjoy.

Like all of the links on BiblioBuffet’s pages, this one is always looking for additional material. If you know of a great site (or a new category you'd like to see), let me know by sending an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Black Books: Bernard's Letter
A very funny clip that begins with a frustrated writer and a letter. It expresses perfectly the range of emotions that inevitably accompany the receipt of a rejection letter.

Catalog Card Generator
I love this site that allows me to play around and make my own catalog cards; I can even create my own version of the Dewey Decimal System. Choose the “printed” version, add a call number, title and scribbles and watch as the card, looking quite real, appears. These would make interesting bookplates.

Fun Trivia: Quizzes: Literature
Do you know books and authors? Well, here’s a place to test yourself with quizzes on plays, poetry, horror, fantasy, humor and satire, legends, non-fiction, religious literature, mystery and detective fiction, literature by region and more. They range from very easy to tough.

Middle Ages Tech Support
If you have ever had to call the Help Desk or Tech Support in frustration over a computer issue, you’ll love this fantastically funny clip about what might have happened when books overtook scrolls.

Big Cozy Books
Giant upholstered furniture for kids who love to read. They focus on commercial and public places, but if your child’s room is big enough these pieces would be wonderful.

Bodleian Library Shop
The Bodleian Library offers a fantastic array of gifts for the book-minded including home accessories, stationery, bookplates, journals, jewelry and more.

Book Baskets
Here is a company that makes up specialty wicker gift baskets for the booklover in your life—and does a wonderful job. They have lots of baskets, but will custom make one for no extra charge. An example is the “Low-Carb Meals in Minutes” one which contains a cookbook of the same name, a bottle of olive oil, pesto sauce, a vegetable brush, smoked garlic cheese, recipe cards, a ceramic mug, decaf coffee and a Belgian candy bar.

Enchanted Bookery
“Personalized gift baskets of books” is a good description of this site where every basket contains multiple books, a customized bookmark and customized bookplate and related items. You can choose for babies/toddlers (even a new puppy), older children, teens, adults (themes include mystery lovers, golfers, friends, fun the in sun and more). They have a list of gift items and books so you can make it fit your recipient perfectly.

Just Bookends
This incredible site is perfect—at least for those of you who have room on your bookshelves for bookends. I don’t, but I am thinking I will have to find room for at least one pair. More than 200 different sets are available, meaning whatever your interest you are likely to find something that fits your taste and your shelves perfectly.

Kimbooktu
This is THE site for booklovers if they are also book gadget lovers. Kim, who lives in the Netherlands, searches the web looking for all kinds of items that readers are going to love. As she says, “My passion for books also causes me to collect items that have to do with books and reading.” What she finds you'll see here. Warning: This site is addictive, fantastic and dangerous to your pocketbook.

Library of Congress Gift Shop
I adore museum and library gift shops when I am seeking high quality bookish gifts, and the Library of Congress is definitely worth checking out. My favorite section is “For Book Lovers” where you can find bookmarks, bookplates, bookends, clothing, wall art and more. But they also a lot of other items.

Literacy Site Shop
The Literacy Site (see its link under Book-Related Sites) also has a gift shop with a fascinating array of bookish gifts—jewelry, clothing, home and garden, world artisans and more. The money it receives from your shopping goes to help children who would not otherwise have them receive books.

Los Angeles Public Library Shop
Gifts for readers, writers, children, Los Angeles lovers and more abound here. As a fourth-generation native of this area on one side and second on the other, I am proud of this city’s library. And I am particularly fond of their Personal Library Kit .

Morgan Library Gift Shop
J. Pierpont Morgan had the interest and the means to collect expensive books, and he did. The museum is astounding, well worth an afternoon if you visit New York. But if you can’t get there, this shop has lovely things.

New Yorker Store
The best known literary magazine, the New Yorker offers a wide range of quality gifts in their online store. You can search their selection in several ways, one of which is by topic. And one of those topics is books. Prints, t-shirts, sweatshirts or note cards featuring your choice of nearly 700 different cartoons or covers are available for you or your favorite booklover.

New York Public Library Gift Shop
As befits its reputation as a Great Library, their shop carries wonderful gifts for any booklover. Visit if you can; shop if you can’t. They have a wide selection of items for any interest and any budget.

NovelKeys
Pewter key chains, wine stoppers, keepsake boxes and tea infusers that feature inspiration and funny quotes from authors and composers are the focus of this delightful online shop. Each quote is in the shape of a tiny books with meticulous engraving.

Original Trading Company
Decorative accessories based on books is this company’s specialty. And they have some wonderful items! Their prices are not inexpensive, but you are sure to be tempted. One of their most amazing products is faux books that are custom-made to be attached to a wall or left free-standing. (I am dreaming of having kitchen cabinet doors made by them.) These reproductions come directly from antique leather books, and bear a remarkable resemblance to them. More reasonable bookish items include desk accessories, drink accessories, book boxes, files and journals, jewelry, storage, even furniture and lighting.

Rebound Designs
Purses made out of actual books and pins with bits of naughty sayings from romance novels on them. Fun, quirky and delightful.

Serious Readers
This is a web site devoted to items for, well, serious readers. They carry reading lights, reading aids (including book holders, portable lights and magnifiers), and gifts for readers. Note that this is a British firm, and all prices are in pounds.

Tease Catalog
Unlike Serious Readers, this site is full of fun, zany stuff—mugs, bookmarks, stationery, clothing, etc. But they also have lovely jewelry (I am especially attracted to the sterling silver earrings and pendant).

Wonderful Graffiti
Home art for the bookish is part of this unusual wall decoration store that “celebrates typography—the art of lettering—in unconventional ways.” I love the READ one. 

Backspace Writers’ Conference
Perhaps the best of all writers’ conferences, this one is definitely worth your money and time. This two-day conference at New York’s famous Algonquin Hotel has catapulted to the top of list of conferences with its emphasis on quality, not quantity. No more than 150 novelists can attend, and there are no formal pitch sessions (which most agents hate). Instead, you’ll have the opportunity to mingle with some of the best writers and agents in the industry in a comfortable, non-aggressive atmosphere.

Behler Blog
Run by Lynn Price of Behler Publications, this blog is smart, sassy and utterly delicious. It’s also excellent reading for writers who are looking for editorial feedback. She tells it like it is for those who are serious about their writing—and their sense of humor.

CraigsList Curmudgeon
Begun in October 2006 by an anonymous person who found the Writing/Editing jobs that were being posted on CraigsList insulting, this wonderful, funny blog is a damn good way to poke fun at those who think writers shouldn’t be paid for their work because writing, after all, is something anybody can do. Right? Riiiiiight!

Evil Editor
“Why you don’t get published” is the subtitle of this entertaining if ruthless blog. This genuine but unidentified literary gatekeeper offers great critiques to anyone who asks. Who he is and where he works is a secret, but his gruffness is surely a front for his soft heart. You won’t see the latter in his posts, but it’s there. Why else would he devote a fair amount of his free time helping writers with query letters, book beginnings and questions?

Janet Reid
As passionate as the crime fiction she loves, this agent offers a blog that is an invigorating combination of advice, personal rants, amusing observations, wild fantasy trips and just about anything else that catches her interest. She can be both snarky and caring. Read this—and take notes—if you want to learn how agents think.

Miss Snark
Sadly, MS decided after two years to return to earning a living as an agent. Her blog is closed as of May 20, 2007, but its archives will remain. If you are not familiar with her, she’s the original blogging agent—a New York city literary agent who used the pseudonym, Miss Snark. With her hilarious persona and her claims to “vent her wrath on the hapless world of writers” while “crushing them to sand beneath the T. Rexual heels of stiletto snark,” she rapidly became the most popular of all blogging agents. She was unbelievably generous with her expertise, and all of her advice and wisdom remains available. Be sure to check her links to other trustworthy blogging agents and editors. I am pleased to say BiblioBuffet was honored with one of her rare links to “Cool People," and we are going to miss her very much.

Poetry Society of America
Google poetry and you’re likely to get a scam. The reason is that poetry is a hard sell to publishers—the small market for it means very few handle it—and those who would take advantage of poets seeking publication is huge. But this site is not only legitimate; it’s a fantastic resource that offers “readings, seminars and competitions intended to challenge and inspire.” If you are a poet or interested in poetry, you should have this site bookmarked.

Poets & Writers
This is probably the best print publication for writers. Their online site offers a forum, links to grants, funding for readings and an e-newsletter for contest deadline reminders.

Preditors & Editors™
Since 1997, this watchdog site has acted as a clearinghouse for writers. It provides information, recommendations, warnings and contacts for those “seeking publication of their work.” Founder Dave Kuzminski is a published writer of both non-fiction and fiction, as well as a fearless fighter for truth and right. It is regularly updated, and there is no charge for this. (Disclosure: BiblioBuffet has received a Recommended rating from P&E, but that’s not why the site on this list.)

Pub Rants
The home of Colorado-based literary agent Kristin Nelson who gives the same clearheaded advice as Miss Snark but without the snarkiness. She’s a very nice—and successful—agent who indulges, as she says, “in polite rants about queries, writers, and the publishing industry.” She also links to quite a number of other trustworthy blogging agents and editors.

UCLA Extension Writers’ Program   
This university's extension program is one of the best in the nation, and probably the jewel in this crown is its Writers’ Program which offers more than 550 courses annually plus certificate programs, script and manuscript consultations, and a screenplay competition. More than 250 superb instructors specialize in screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting and poetry, and their classes include online, daytime, evenings, weekends, master courses for writers with near-professional work, and an annual intensive four-day writers’ studio. There are even scholarship opportunities. Plus, they blog!

Writer Beware
Successful mid-list SFF authors Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin run one of the best writer educational sites around, and they do it because they care about other writers, and, as Victoria told me, grinning, because they “find the sleazy mental processes of scammers irresistibly fascinating.” Their home page has numerous links (and sub-links) that if read in full could easily be a university-level education in publishing. (Consider “enrolling,” and you’ll be glad you did.) They also offer warnings about scammers who prey on new writers. If you are writing with an eye to publication, you should definitely take the time to read through every bit of information here. You can also write to them with any question and they will check their extensive files and databases. It is continually updated, and there is no charge for this.

Writer Beware Blog
In addition to the Writer Beware web site, Ann and Victoria keep this blog about their ongoing efforts to hunt “down scam agents, and get information on writing and publishing.” Cons preying on naïve writers abound, but you will, as they say, “get the straight dope here.” Their information is extremely valuable—essential, in fact—if you are or want to be published.

Writers’ Resources Style Guides
This page lists links to an enormous number of online writers’ resource style guides including those on acronyms, words, clichés, common English errors, quotation marks, grammar, apostrophes, language, writing, word origins and old English sayings. There are also links to dictionaries, glossaries, encyclopedias and digital style guides. This is an amazing site, though writers should never be without their own print library of style guides and reference books.