In my early webdesign days I got a lot of inspiration from the book "The Webdesign Index". Yes, I see the irony of getting website-inspiration from a book. But hey, at least it also included a CD-ROM!
The Webdesign Index was an annual coffee-table book by Günter Beer, had a very remarkable tall shape, and featured images of 1002 of the best websites from that year. Apparently my edition was the second one, from 2001.
I used to spend whole afternoons browsing through the book, finding a design I liked, and then firing up the 56k dial-up modem to actually visit that site. It featured sites like the Habbo Hotel, but also the first Macromedia Director and Macromedia Flash Sites. It also inspired me to develop my vector-graphics style.
Thinking back, I would love to browse the book again, but where is it? Do I still have it somewhere, or did get rid of it at a time when those sites must have felt hopelessly outdated? If I find it, I will update the image in the sidebar with a picture of the actual blue 2001 edition.