Find Your Next Read
Discover texts by subject, category, or length. This tool matches your preferences to the catalog's 94 works.
Do more with this book catalog
This library brings together 94 public-domain texts, organized into four categories. The collection spans adventure, fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction, with a focus on drama and plays. You can explore by category, subject, or time commitment.
Each work includes details such as word count, reading time, and subject headings. The tools below help you find a suitable text, compare options side by side, or estimate how long a book will take to read. Use them to plan your next reading session.
94
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
94
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Compare Works
See titles side by side with word counts, reading times, and subjects. Make an informed choice before you begin.
Estimate Reading Time
Get honest estimates based on word count. Whether you have a quick break or a long evening, plan accordingly.
Choosing Your Next Read: How the Tools Work Together
The AFUFO Public Domain Literature Library holds 94 plays and related works, with each title tagged by category, word count, estimated reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, and subjects. Three tools—Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker—help you navigate this collection, but they serve different purposes. Understanding how they complement each other can save you time and make your reading more deliberate.
Book Finder narrows the catalog by your preferences, Compare Books examines two or three titles side by side, and Reading Tracker plans your daily progress. Used together, they form a workflow: find candidates, compare the most promising, then track the one you choose. The tools do not rate literary quality; they describe measurable features so you can decide what fits your mood and schedule.
Start with Book Finder to Set Your Scope
Book Finder is the entry point. You can filter by category, length, reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, subjects, and even preference for popular or hidden gems. The catalog's four categories are Adventure Picaresque Fiction, Historical Psychological Social Fiction, Fantasy Juvenile Worlds, and Science Fiction Utopias, each with roughly 23-24 titles. If you know you want a comedy, you can select the subject "Comedy plays" and see 32 results. Or if you have an evening, filter by "quick" reading time (under 120 minutes) to get 47 options.
A concrete example: suppose you are drawn to 20th-century British theater. "Trelawny of The \"Wells\": A Comedietta in Four Acts — Background and Themes" (id 285) is categorized under Historical Psychological Social Fiction and has a reading time of 135 minutes, making it a steady evening read. Book Finder lets you combine that category with a time filter to see similar plays. But you might also want to know how its sentence flow compares to other comedies—that is where Compare Books steps in.
Use Compare Books to See the Differences
Once you have a shortlist, Compare Books puts two or three titles side by side, showing word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, subjects, and page information when available. These metrics are descriptive, not evaluative. A longer book is not better or worse; it simply requires a different commitment.
For instance, you might compare "Epicoene; Or, The Silent Woman — Reading Notes" (id 244) at 53,118 words with "Colombine — Story, Setting & Ideas" (id 306) at 9,451 words. The former is a full-length comedy by Ben Jonson with 231 estimated reading minutes, while the latter is a one-act play that fits in 42 minutes. Their text sections also differ: 7 versus 24, reflecting how the works are divided. Such comparisons help you decide whether you want a short, segmented piece or a longer, continuous play.
Compare Books also reveals subjects that may matter to you. If you are interested in Elizabethan drama, you might compare "The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 2" and "The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3"—both share subjects like "English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism," but they differ in length and sentence flow. The tool makes those differences visible without forcing a ranking.
Track Your Progress with Reading Tracker
After choosing a book, Reading Tracker helps you plan daily pages. It records progress in pages, with a current page, total pages, and a daily goal. If the catalog lacks a fixed page count, it estimates the total as the word count divided by 250 words per page. You can adjust the total to match your edition. The tracker then estimates remaining time and finish days based on your daily goal.
For example, if you select "The Middle-Class Gentleman — Themes and Context" (id 236) with 21,419 words, the estimated page count is about 86 pages. At a default goal of 20 pages per day, you would finish in roughly 5 days. The tracker stores your history in the browser, so no account is needed. This turns a vague intention into a concrete plan, especially useful for longer works like the multi-volume Elizabethan Stage series.