Few pointers:
1. The image on the homepage is nearly half a meg. Ive got a pretty good broadband connection but it still took a while to load that image. BMP is not the way to go for website images. JPG and Gif are the more expeptable options. Load up the image in your image editor and re-save...
Yes this simple layout avoids distracting the users attention away from the large amoutn of text they read. An option though would be to plit a story up over a number of pages eg per 500 words which would be useful for someone who cant want to read a story in one sitting. I didnt know anyone...
maybe put the browser standards stuff lower to keep the flow of significant content: welcome -> highest ratest -> latest > browse smart. your menu order isnt great, admin will only be used by you so shouldnt be the 2nd most important link in the menu. either dont include the link and bookmark it...