About 14 minutes
The Lost Temples of Xantoos — Edition Insights
Fantasy Juvenile Worlds
3,200 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #33729
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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 18 minutes
Queen Summer; Or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose — Themes and Context
Fantasy Juvenile Worlds
4,004 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #24449About 22 minutes
The Dalby Bear, and Other Ballads — A Reader’s Guide
Historical Psychological Social Fiction
5,052 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #28817Search the excerpts stored with this catalog
96 of 96 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: General William Booth Enters into Heaven, and Other Poems — Edition Insights
Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl! Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean, Rulers of empires, and of forests green! [Grand chorus of all instruments. Tambourines to the foreground.] The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire! (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir. (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?) O, shout Salvation! It was good to see Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free. The banjos rattled and the tambour…
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Compare two books and their available excerpts
| Book | Recorded words | Estimated minutes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lost Temples of Xantoos — Edition Insights | 3,200 | 14 | Gutenberg #33729 |
| Queen Summer; Or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose — Themes and Context | 4,004 | 18 | Gutenberg #24449 |
| The Dalby Bear, and Other Ballads — A Reader’s Guide | 5,052 | 22 | Gutenberg #28817 |
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: 2026-09-25. Coverage: 96 public books, 96 available source excerpts.
Do more with this book catalog
This catalog brings together 96 public-domain works across four distinct categories: Adventure Picaresque Fiction, Fantasy Juvenile Worlds, Science Fiction Utopias, and Historical Psychological Social Fiction. Each title has been prepared with a reader-focused guide, so you can explore the text with context and confidence.
The library is organized to help you find what suits your mood. You can narrow by category, length, or reading time, and each book page includes clear details about word count, sections, and sentence style. Whether you are browsing for a quick read or a longer immersion, the tools here make the choice straightforward.
96
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
96
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Find Your Next Book
Use the finder to match books to your interests. Filter by category, length, or reading time, and see which titles fit your preferences. The catalog's 96 works range from short poems to epic prose.
Compare Readability
See how books differ in average sentence length and total word count. This helps you gauge the reading pace before you start. Compare titles side by side to choose what feels right for you.
Plan Your Reading Time
With median reading minutes around 118, most books take about two hours. Use the reading-time estimates to schedule your sessions, whether you have 20 minutes or an entire afternoon.
Choosing a Path Through 96 Public-Domain Works
The ENAEM Public Domain Literature Library holds 96 works, and the four categories are evenly balanced: each contains 24 titles. That balance means a category alone will not narrow things much; you will want the supporting tools to refine a choice. Book Finder, Compare Books and Reading Tracker each serve a distinct step in that process.
Book Finder is the natural entry point when you have a rough sense of what you want—a category, a time commitment, or a particular kind of text rhythm. Compare Books then lets you set two or three candidates side by side to see how their measurable features differ. Reading Tracker comes into play after you have chosen, helping you plan a sustainable pace through the edition you are actually reading.
Start with Book Finder
Suppose a volume of American verse catches your attention: Ballads of American bravery — A Closer Reading (id 308) runs to about 51,000 words and is grouped under Fantasy Juvenile Worlds, despite its subject headings pointing to American poetry and courage. The category assignment may not match your intuition, so the Finder’s filters—word count, reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, subjects—let you set aside the category label and search by what matters for your reading session.
The Finder’s no-preference options are useful here. If you are open to any length but want a text with relatively short sentences, you can leave the length fields alone and set sentence flow to a preference. Because the catalog has 96 books with complete data for word count, estimated minutes, chapter count, and average sentence length, the tool can respond to a single criterion without forcing you to commit to others.
Once you have a shortlist, the Finder’s job is done. It is not a rating system; it simply reflects the catalog’s descriptive metadata. The next step is to test your shortlist against each other.
Move to Compare, Then Track
Compare Books accepts two or three selections and shows their word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, subjects, and page information when available. For example, if you are weighing a 14-minute read against a 223-minute one, the comparison makes the difference concrete. You might decide you want a single sitting or a week-long companion.
After you choose, Reading Tracker turns the book’s total page count into a daily plan. The tracker records progress in pages, not minutes or sections. If the catalog lacks a fixed page count, it estimates pages by dividing the word count by 250. You can override that total with the page count from your own edition, which is helpful because a printed book and a screen version rarely match.
The three tools are meant to be used in sequence, but they also work independently. You might use Compare to settle a debate between two titles you already know, or use Reading Tracker for a book you picked up elsewhere. The library’s catalog is fully covered—every one of the 96 books has word count, estimated minutes, chapter count, and sentence data—so the tools can give consistent answers across the whole collection.