DC Multiverse

Dear Wal,

The DC multiverse has fascinated me since I started reading comics. The idea that a new universe is created for each option when someone encounters a choice in their life can apply in fantastic ways to comic books. What would a world where Jason Todd never died be like? Who would be Batman in a would where Bruce Wayne's parents weren't shot that night in the alley? Creatively, multiple universes have vast potential for great stories. I don't see why DC doesn't exploit this well of ideas just waiting to be tapped. Another thing I think should've been included in the relaunch was a relaunch of some kind of an Elseworlds title, only in it's own series.
At this old, dingy library I used to go to they had a whole shelf of trades. Yeah, an actual shelf. The place had a warm, private kind of feeling in the way you could always find an empty, quiet nook in some distant corner where you could sit and read and never see a soul no matter how many people were in the library. The place was huge. The books were mostly trashed from years of abuse, the furniture cheep and uncomfortable but hardy. Anyway, I went hunting for that shelf of trades one day and devoured everything on it, or at least everything I could stand in those early days of ignorance, and one of the books there was Infinite Crises. Now, I didn't have a clue what was going on or who any of those superpeople or these aliens were, but I was seriously hooked by the idea of parallel universes. That book is the one reason why I'm so enthralled with DC comics and find it nearly impossible to make my way into Marvel continuity. It doesn't make any sense according to the rules of parallel earths and fifth dimensions and everything else I've built for myself. Anybody know a good starting place?
I have no idea what state the DC multiverse is in now after the fated relaunch, but I like to think there's a parallel earth for every incarnation of our favorite heroes that doesn't fit into the regular continuity. In my own mind, there's this whole ordered universe that doesn't really exist in the comics but lays down the basis for how I see the DCU. As far as I'm concerned, Final Crisis never happened. I like to think that there's an easier world  out there somewhere where Bruce actually died and Dick became Batman permanently. Sure, I know what happened in that whole storyline and I've read most of it but that doesn't mean that I have to accept that it happened.
If you're wondering what spurred all this, I just finished reading Dues Ex Machina and it's got me thinking. The idea of holding a whole other world in my hands when I'm holding a comic book is completely fascinating.
Yeah..randomness. Oh well. Grant Morrison has me in a mood.

/endrant