shakespeare.sh

#!/bin/sh
# shakespeare - print a list of Shakespeare's plays sorted by word count

curl -s http://shakespeare.mit.edu/index.html |
grep "<a" |
grep -v em |
egrep -o 'href="[a-z_]+' |
sed 's/href="//' |
while read play
do
  words=$(curl -s http://shakespeare.mit.edu/$play/full.html | html2text | wc -w)
  printf "%17s %5d\n" $play $words
done |
sort -rk 2

terminal output

           hamlet 32063
       richardiii 31302
       coriolanus 29148
        cymbeline 28776
          othello 27785
             lear 27644
 troilus_cressida 27443
           henryv 27426
        cleopatra 26897
        henryviii 25891
     winters_tale 25803
     romeo_juliet 25715
         allswell 24307
        richardii 23839
      merry_wives 23573
          measure 23074
              lll 22853
      asyoulikeit 22769
         much_ado 22477
         merchant 22134
     taming_shrew 22025
             john 21691
            titus 21657
    twelfth_night 21364
    julius_caesar 20789
            timon 19574
         pericles 19482
          macbeth 18165
        midsummer 17077
    comedy_errors 16132