About 55 minutes
Doctor Birch and His Young Friends — Reading Notes
Science Fiction Utopias
12,438 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #45554
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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 62 minutes
That Pup — A Closer Reading
Fairy Tales Myths Imaginary Worlds
14,034 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #44146About 90 minutes
The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon — Context and Discussion
Adventure Picaresque Fiction
20,608 recorded words. Selected by the catalog's stored reading-time estimate.
View Gutenberg source #46591Search the excerpts stored with this catalog
98 of 98 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: Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 1 — Text and Context
INTRODUCES MRS. JAMES PREEDY; HINTS AT THE TROUBLE INTO WHICH SHE HAS FALLEN; AND GIVES AN INSIGHT INTO HER SOCIAL POSITION. Mrs. James Preedy, lodging-house keeper, bred and born in the vocation, and consequently familiar with all the moves of that extensive class of persons in London that has no regular home, and has to be cooked for, washed for, and generally done for, sat in the kitchen of her house, No. 118, Great Porter Square. This apartment was situated in the basement, and here Mrs. Pr…
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Compare two books and their available excerpts
| Book | Recorded words | Estimated minutes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Birch and His Young Friends — Reading Notes | 12,438 | 55 | Gutenberg #45554 |
| That Pup — A Closer Reading | 14,034 | 62 | Gutenberg #44146 |
| The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon — Context and Discussion | 20,608 | 90 | Gutenberg #46591 |
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: 98 public books, 98 available source excerpts.
Do more with this book catalog
The OQRAS Public Domain Literature Library holds 98 works of fiction, selected for readers who like to explore beyond the common canon. The collection is arranged into four broad categories, from adventure stories to speculative worlds, with a focus on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century texts.
Each book page includes practical details: word count, estimated reading time, the number of text sections, and the average sentence length. These tools help you gauge the scale and style of a work before you begin, so you can choose a read that fits your available time and your taste for denser or lighter prose.
98
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
98
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Book Finder
Browse by category, length, reading time, or subject. Filter the catalog to see which titles match your interests, whether you prefer quick reads or lengthy epics.
Compare Books
View two or more titles side by side, with word counts, sentence lengths, and other factual details. Useful for weighing similar choices before you commit.
Reading Time Estimator
See how long a book might take to read, based on its word count and the median reading pace. Adjust for your own speed to plan your next session.
Find, Compare, Track: Using the OQRAS Tools Together
The OQRAS library holds 98 public-domain titles, from short tales to multi-volume novels. With four categories and a wide spread of lengths, the first question is usually where to start. The three tools on this page work best as a sequence: find candidates, compare them side by side, then plan your reading. Each answers a different part of the decision.
Consider a title like "Shameless Wayne: A Romance of the last Feud of Wayne and Ratcliffe — Reading Companion" (id 303). At roughly 144,000 words, it sits well above the catalog median of about 70,000. The Finder can surface it if you filter for longer works; Compare can then set it next to a shorter novel; the Tracker can turn that word count into a daily page target. None of the tools rate quality, but together they shape expectations.
Start with the Finder
The Finder narrows the catalog by the criteria that matter most to you: category, length, reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, or subject. If you know you want a historical story set in Scotland, the subject filter can pull up "Shameless Wayne" directly. If you are open to anything, leaving preferences blank returns the full range of options without penalty.
The Finder is also where you can weigh popularity against hidden gems. The library does not rank books by quality, but the tool lets you express a preference for well-known titles or more obscure ones. That is a practical choice, not a critical one. A reader new to Victorian fiction might prefer a familiar name, while a dedicated browser might enjoy the lesser-known corners of the collection.
Compare to see the real difference
Once you have two or three candidates, the Compare tool puts their numbers side by side. Word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, and subjects all appear in one view. The goal is not to decide which book is better, but to see which fits your available time and preferred pace.
For example, comparing "Shameless Wayne" with a title like "The Border Spy; or, The Beautiful Captive of the Rebel Camp A Story of the War" (id 289) reveals a stark contrast: the former is about 144,000 words, the latter about 42,000. The reading-time estimate—roughly 628 minutes versus 183—translates into very different commitments. If you have a week, the shorter book is feasible; if you want a longer immersion, the Wayne romance offers that.
Track with a plan
The Reading Tracker turns a book's word count into a page-based plan. It uses a default of 250 words per page, so "Shameless Wayne" would start at about 577 pages. You can adjust that total to match your edition. Set a daily goal—say 20 pages—and the tracker estimates how many days remain.
This is where the tools connect. The Finder gives you a candidate, Compare shows its length relative to others, and the Tracker makes that length concrete. A 577-page book at 20 pages a day takes about 29 days. That is a different commitment than a 160-page book finished in a week. Planning ahead prevents mid-book surprises.
When to skip a step
You do not need to use all three tools every time. If you already know the exact book, the Tracker alone is enough. If you are browsing without a specific length in mind, the Finder's category and subject filters can lead you somewhere unexpected. The tools are independent, but they share the same catalog data, so the numbers you see in one place will match the others.