Book Finder
Use the Book Finder to search the library by genre, subject, or reading length. Match books to your interests and find your next read from the 92 available titles.
Do more with this book catalog
The CUIEP Public Domain Literature Library brings together a curated collection of classic texts that are free to explore. Each work is accompanied by a set of reader tools designed to help you navigate, understand, and enjoy the material more deeply. Whether you are a casual reader or a dedicated student, these tools offer practical ways to engage with the literature.
The library currently holds 92 books across four categories, ranging from adventure and fantasy to science fiction and social commentary. With tools like the Book Finder, Compare Tool, and Reading Companion, you can discover new reads, compare different works, and gain insights into each text's structure and themes. Start by exploring the tools below.
92
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
92
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Compare Tool
The Compare Tool lets you examine two books side by side, looking at word count, reading time, sentence complexity, and subject matter. See how different authors approach similar themes.
Reading Companion
For each book, the Reading Companion offers an estimate of reading time, a breakdown of text sections, and a look at vocabulary difficulty. Use it to plan your reading session and follow along.
Choosing a Path through the Library
The CUIEP Public Domain Literature Library holds 92 works spread across four categories of roughly equal size. With so many titles, the challenge is often not finding something to read but deciding which book to start with. Three tools — Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker — work together to help you move from a vague interest to a finished read. None of them rates literary quality; they simply make the catalog's practical dimensions visible.
A concrete example shows how they complement one another. Suppose you are drawn to a title like "Arctic angels — Background and Themes" (id 284), a short adventure story set in the Arctic with the Royal North West Mounted Police. The Finder can confirm that it is a quick read, and the Compare tool can place it beside another story to reveal how its sentence flow or chapter rhythm differ. Once you have selected it, the Reading Tracker turns that choice into a simple page-based plan. The tools are most useful when used in sequence.
Start with Book Finder
Book Finder is the entry point because it lets you apply the criteria that matter most to you. The catalog offers four categories, each with 23 titles, so you can quickly narrow to Adventure Picaresque Fiction or Historical Psychological Social Fiction. You can also filter by length, estimated reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, or subject. If you are unsure, choosing no preference does not penalize any book, so the Finder remains a safe starting place.
The Finder also reveals the catalog's shape. For example, 62 of the 92 books are tagged with the subject "Short stories," which means many titles are compact and can be finished in a single sitting. If you are looking for a longer commitment, you can filter for medium, long, or epic lengths. The distribution of lengths — 46 short, 16 medium, 22 long, and 8 epic — tells you that the library skews toward shorter works, but substantial reads are available.
Refine with Compare Books
Once you have a few candidates, Compare Books lets you see them side by side. It shows word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, subjects, and page information when available. These metrics are descriptive, not evaluative; they help you anticipate the pacing and structure of a work. For instance, comparing a 4,400-word story with a 88,000-word collection makes the difference in commitment obvious before you commit.
Compare is especially useful when two books share a category or subject but differ in form. You might compare a single-section story with a multi-section collection to decide whether you want a continuous narrative or a series of pieces. The tool's ability to display three books at once lets you weigh options without flipping between pages.
Plan with Reading Tracker
After you have chosen a book, Reading Tracker helps you plan your reading time. It records progress in pages, with a current page, total pages, and a daily goal. If the catalog does not provide a fixed page count, it estimates one using 250 words per page. You can replace that estimate with the page count from your own edition, which keeps the tracker accurate for your copy.
The tracker also calculates estimated remaining time and finish days based on your daily goal. The default goal is 20 pages per day, but you can adjust it. Because progress is stored in your browser's localStorage, you do not need an account, and your reading history remains on your device. This makes the tracker a lightweight companion for working through a book at your own pace.