What to Choose?

By Brian Truitt

www.WhichBook.net
For those indecisive people who buy their books depending on their mood, www.WhichBook.net could be their new favorite website. You have a range of options to choose from on a sliding scale: Want to read something slightly disturbing, really funny, overly conventional and middling between larger than life and down to earth? You can find it here, with reader comments, parallels with other books and—depending on the book—an excerpt. Dig deeper into the site, and you can also choose from character, plot and setting options.

www.Musipedia.org
Haunted by a melody that you KNOW you’ve heard somewhere before? Test that theory with www.Musipedia.org, an ever-growing encyclopedia of melodies, themes and various tunes. Those wondering about a certain musical snippet can bang it out on a virtual keyboard, whistle it into the computer or tap a rhythm on their laptops’ keyboards, and the “Melodyhound” search engine will hunt it down for you. It’s powered by users, so you can add entries to the database.

(July 2009)