So what if the endgame here is all about buying books from Oxford? You don’t need to buy a thing to take advantage of a host of writing and grammar tips as well as on-the-money quotations from this prestigious publisher.
www.askoxford.com

If you’ve spent money or have been tempted to spend money for the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), you’ll appreciate this one. Sometimes it helps to know where a word’s been to know what it means. “Sinister”, ages ago, for instance, meant “left-handed”. And while you’re checking out “left-handed”, be sure to find out how the contemporary political meaning of the word “left” originated.
www.etymonline.com

Think all dictionaries are the same? Need to be precise? This powerhouse of a website gives you access to 1.065 different dictionaries in which you can locate the same word. Granted, a rose is a rose is a rose, but try typing in the word “rose” in the the search car. Or, for that matter, watch what happens when you type the words “hedge fund” in the search bar.
www.onelook.com

Have you been postponing spending the money for one of those new software packages that teach you Italian? The good news is that here is a site at which you can develop the beginnings of reading and speaking fluency in la bella lingua without spending a dime. There’s additional good news too once you realize that these same folks sponsor a French.about.com, a Spanish.about.com, German.About.com and - well - how many languages do you want to speak?
www.Italian.about.com

A good way to make stock charts you can use to track trends and personal investments. It also gives you the ability to store your personal charts.
www.stockcharts.com

Provides clear and detailed definitions on just about every important investment word you’ll encounter. This site is particularly useful and clear when it comes to the technicals. Look up the word “lock-limit,” for instance, and the phrase “relative strength index”.
www.investorwords.com

An organization “formed and funded by the world’s leading mining companies“ that provides a rich source of statistics, history, supply-and-demand dynamics and a virtual museum-full of information on gold. If you’re looking for some good in-depth articles on the yellow metal, check out the “knowledge archive”.
www.worldgoldcouncil.com

This one’s all about self improvement in many different ways: how to build a business, become a better writer, improve your health, build your vocabulary and make millions. Ridiculous, you say - specialization is the key to credibility. Well, the sponsor of the site, Michael Masterson, a successful and versatile multi-millionaire, is no fool. He writes well about only what he knows, and enlists very qualified specialists to contribute insights in their areas of specialty.
www.earlytorise.com

Here’s an ingenious way to catalog your books at home. The site even gives you a way of connecting with people who read the same books you do.
www.librarything.com

This is a good way of bartering books: finding a home for the ones you no longer read, and getting hold of the ones you’d like to read for just the price of sending in yours. It’s all done on a credits system which will prove easy pickings for the voracious reader.
www.bookmooch.com