About 36 minutes
Tennessee's Partner — Text and Context
Science Fiction Utopias
8,159 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #4674
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Start with a reading choice
Three of the shortest recorded reading commitments in this catalog. Times are estimates, not quality ratings.
About 38 minutes
The Son of My Friend — Background and Themes
Science Fiction Utopias
8,732 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #4623About 48 minutes
Rosa Alchemica — A Reader’s Guide
Science Fiction Utopias
10,909 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #5794Search the excerpts stored with this catalog
99 of 99 catalog books have a stored excerpt with a Gutenberg source record. Search covers these excerpts only, up to 6,000 characters per book. A missing match does not mean the phrase is absent from the full work.
Read a catalog excerpt example: The Untilled Field — A Reader’s Guide
This was the last statue he would do in Ireland. He was leaving Ireland. On this point his mind was made up, and the money he was going to receive for this statue was the money that was going to take him away. He had had enough of a country where there had never been any sculpture or any painting, nor any architecture to signify. They were talking about reviving the Gothic, but Rodney did not believe in their resurrections or in their renaissance or in their anything. "The Gael has had his day. …
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Compare two books and their available excerpts
| Book | Recorded words | Estimated minutes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee's Partner — Text and Context | 8,159 | 36 | Gutenberg #4674 |
| The Son of My Friend — Background and Themes | 8,732 | 38 | Gutenberg #4623 |
| Rosa Alchemica — A Reader’s Guide | 10,909 | 48 | Gutenberg #5794 |
How these choices and excerpts are prepared
Choices use stored catalog measurements. Estimates vary with reading speed. A shared category is a catalog label, not a claim that two books have the same argument or literary quality.
Search reads excerpt text stored with this catalog and links to its associated Gutenberg record. The connection is stored in the site database; this tool does not recheck that every excerpt is word-for-word identical to that external record. Excerpt search does not cover every chapter and does not verify historical publication dates.
Catalog snapshot checked: 2026-09-26. Coverage: 99 public books, 99 available source excerpts.
Do more with this book catalog
The OGIVU Public Domain Literature Library offers 99 works of classic fiction, organized into four themed categories. Each category groups books by a shared narrative focus, from adventure to social observation.
Our reader tools help you navigate this collection. Use the Finder to match books to your preferences, the Compare tool to weigh different editions, and the Reading tool to estimate how a book fits into your schedule.
99
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
99
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Find Your Next Read
The Finder lets you filter by category, length, and subject. It matches your tastes to books in our collection.
Compare Books Side by Side
The Compare tool displays key details like word count, reading time, and section count, helping you decide between similar titles.
Plan Your Reading Time
The Reading tool estimates how long a book will take to read, based on its word count and your reading speed.
Choosing Your Path Through the Catalog
With 99 public-domain titles spread across four categories, the OGIVU library offers more than a single shelf of classics. The hub connects three tools—Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker—each designed for a different stage of your encounter with a text. None of them rate literary quality; they help you find, weigh, and plan.
Start with Book Finder
Book Finder narrows the catalog by the criteria that matter to you: category, length, estimated reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, and subjects. For instance, if you are drawn to historical fiction set in the Netherlands, you might enter the subject "Netherlands -- History -- House of Habsburg, 1477-1556 -- Fiction" and see Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch — Story, Setting & Ideas (id 301) among the results. The finder's no-preference choices are genuinely neutral, so you can leave a criterion blank without penalty.
The finder also lets you toggle between popular and hidden-gem preferences. If you prefer less-discussed works, you can filter for those that have received fewer catalog views, though the tool does not judge their worth. Use the finder first to get a manageable shortlist.
Refine with Compare Books
Once you have two or three candidates, Compare Books lays them side by side. It shows word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, and subjects. These metrics are descriptive, not evaluative. For example, you might compare a 30,000-word volume with a 170,000-word epic to see how the commitment differs. The comparison helps you decide which book fits your available reading time and preferred pacing.
Compare Books is especially useful for multi-volume works. If you are considering George MacDonald's St. George and St. Michael, you can compare the full edition with its individual volumes to see how the text is split and whether you want to tackle the whole or one part.
Plan with Reading Tracker
After you choose, Reading Tracker turns your decision into a sustainable plan. It records progress in pages, with a daily goal you set. If a book has no fixed page count, the tracker estimates one at 250 words per page, and you can adjust it to match your edition. The tracker then calculates estimated finish days and remaining time, all stored locally in your browser.
For a book like Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch — Story, Setting & Ideas (id 301), with roughly 162,606 words, the initial page estimate is about 651 pages. At a default goal of 20 pages per day, that suggests a 33-day reading plan. You can adjust the goal to fit your schedule.