About 17 minutes
Two new poems — Context and Discussion
Adventure Picaresque Fiction
3,773 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #75834
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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 20 minutes
Pleasing Poetry and Pictures: For the Mind and the Eye — Key Ideas to Explore
Fantasy Juvenile Worlds
4,440 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #58734About 23 minutes
Porridge poetry — A Reader’s Guide
Historical Psychological Social Fiction
5,201 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #75663Search the excerpts stored with this catalog
94 of 94 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner — Background and Themes
Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the light-house top. The Sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon-- The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, For he heard the loud bassoon. The bride hath paced into the hall, Red as a rose is she; Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy. The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, Yet he cannot chu…
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Compare two books and their available excerpts
| Book | Recorded words | Estimated minutes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two new poems — Context and Discussion | 3,773 | 17 | Gutenberg #75834 |
| Pleasing Poetry and Pictures: For the Mind and the Eye — Key Ideas to Explore | 4,440 | 20 | Gutenberg #58734 |
| Porridge poetry — A Reader’s Guide | 5,201 | 23 | Gutenberg #75663 |
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: 94 public books, 94 available source excerpts.
Do more with this book catalog
This library brings together public domain texts that have shaped the way we read poetry, fiction, and speculative worlds. With 94 works across four categories, you can move from a short lyric to a long narrative without leaving the page. Each title is paired with tools that help you see its structure, length, and themes before you begin.
The collection is organized to let you browse by category, by subject, or by the time a work might take to read. Whether you are looking for a quick poem or a marathon read, the catalog is designed to help you find a text that fits your mood and your schedule.
94
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
94
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Find a Book
Search by category, length, or subject to locate a work that matches your interests. The finder shows how many titles fit each option, so you can narrow your choice with confidence.
Compare Works
Place two or more titles side by side to see word counts, reading times, and text structure. This helps you decide which work to explore next without assumptions about quality.
Plan Your Reading
Use the reading time estimates to plan how much time you need. Filter by quick, steady, immersive, or marathon to match your available hours.
Choosing, Comparing, and Tracking: A Guide to the YUXUA Catalog Tools
The YUXUA Public Domain Literature Library holds 94 works, with nearly equal numbers spread across four categories: Fantasy Juvenile Worlds, Historical Psychological Social Fiction, Adventure Picaresque Fiction, and Science Fiction Utopias. With such balance, the challenge is rarely finding a book—it is deciding which one fits the moment. The library's three tools—Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker—each answer a different part of that question, and they work best when used in sequence.
Consider a title like The sinking of the Titanic, and other poems — Edition Insights (id 290). Its 10,858 words and 48-minute reading estimate make it a quick choice, but its 50 text sections suggest frequent stopping points. The Finder can surface it, Compare can weigh it against a longer collection, and the Tracker can turn that 48-minute estimate into a realistic daily plan. None of the tools rate literary quality; they simply make the catalog's measurable features visible.
Start with the Finder
Book Finder narrows the catalog by the criteria that matter most to you at the moment: category, length, reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, or subject. If you have a free half-hour, filter by quick reading time. If you want to explore a specific subject like English poetry, the Finder will list the 12 relevant titles. The tool is deliberately flexible—no-preference choices do not penalize any book, so you can leave criteria open and still see a broad selection.
For example, selecting the category 'Historical Psychological Social Fiction' and a quick reading time would bring up titles like The sinking of the Titanic, and other poems — Edition Insights, which fits both criteria. The Finder's value is in its ability to combine filters, turning a vague interest into a short list of plausible reads.
Refine with Compare
Once the Finder gives you two or three candidates, Compare Books lets you see them side by side. Word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, and subjects are all displayed for up to three books. This is where the difference between a 20-minute poem and a 200-minute collection becomes concrete, and where you can decide whether you want a single continuous piece or a book broken into many short sections.
For instance, comparing The sinking of the Titanic, and other poems — Edition Insights (48 minutes, 50 sections) with a longer anthology like The poems of Mary Howitt — Themes and Context (226 minutes, 59 sections) shows that the Titanic book offers more natural break points per minute of reading. That might matter if you prefer to read in short bursts.
Plan with the Tracker
After you have chosen a book, Reading Tracker turns its estimated reading time into a page-based plan. Since the catalog does not always include a fixed page count, the tracker estimates pages at 250 words per page. You can adjust the total if your edition shows a different number. Set a daily page goal—the default is 20 pages—and the tracker calculates how many days the book will take, updating as you log progress.
The Tools in Combination
The three tools form a natural pipeline: find a candidate, compare it with others, then track your reading. A book that looks perfect in the Finder might reveal an unexpectedly high sentence flow in Compare, prompting you to plan shorter sessions in the Tracker. The catalog's data is there to support your decisions, not to dictate them.