I could play with the Literature Map for hours. You type in an author and then it gives you a cluster of other similar authors, and all the names are linked, so if you click on another name, it gives you another cluster, and so on. What makes it awesome is that it has all kinds of authors from the canonized greats (distinguishable by the fact that they are listed by last name only) to popular contemporary authors. I personally was surprised to find a greater interaction between the mystery authors I love and the literary fiction authors I love then I had expected. Perhaps that should be a lesson to my own literature snobbery.

Via Tomato Nation (in the Vine column), of course. She's also got a great essay on Bonds up for those of you more interested in the sports side of my ramblings.