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The New York Times has entered the blogging world with a vengeance. In the past year, the venerable paper has launched a fleet of blogs promising up-to-the-minute posts, giddy commentary, and slapdash candor. And a bunch of them have succeeded at it, too.

One of the most recent sites to sail forth from the Gray Lady is Paper Cuts, an "almost daily round-up of news and opinions about books and printed matter" from the Book Review. The site's young still, but already senior editor-now-blogger Dwight Garner has won us over. From his description of infighting among Cormac McCarthy fans ("the fighting Cormackians") to his lovingly compiled slideshow of vintage book ads, we're hooked. The writing's good, the twice daily posts are fresh but manageable, and the potential of literary gossip runs high. That last part might be wishful thinking, but he did call Maud Newton's blog "winsome." A recent take on a new biography of John Updike included this line: "If you're like me, you'll find this strange book a blissful snort of unfiltered catnip." Sneeze! We wish we'd written that.

Your book collection has outgrown your shelves. Stacks of novels pile up in front of hardbound volumes in a jumble worthy of the local thrift store. You've created new furniture with mounds of coffee-table books. We know. It takes hard work to cultivate the right mix of book-club picks, self-help guides, and Harry Potter hardcovers, but all these books are running you out of house and home. What if you could find a more welcome spot for your treasured tomes? This site lets you give the books you don't want to people who have yet to be enlightened by them. In return, you get other publications to add to your home library. (More books!) You can even share with charities, so children's hospitals or literacy programs can pick up new titles. Don't be a mooch—go clean out that bookshelf!

Putting covers on books has been an art form since, well, since before the printing press. But in our mad modern rush to keep up with the latest bestsellers, mysteries, and political rants, do we ever really stop to appreciate the package around the prose? Did you notice, for example, that the bird on the cover of "Field Guide to the North American Bird" is most definitely not a finch? Well, if you saw that one, you probably did. But if you flip for stellar design wrapping the pages of your favorite books, crack open this site. Lavish reproductions and insight into a good cover's needs make the site worth frequent visits for design fetishists and bookworms alike. And it offers an engaging glimpse into the makeup of what sits on the shelves today—from the dire to the delightful to the daring.