Book Finder
Pinpoint books by category, length, or subject. With 95 titles across four categories and tags like detective stories or historical fiction, you can narrow the list to match your taste.
This library brings together 95 public-domain works, organized into four categories: Historical Psychological Social Fiction, Adventure Picaresque Fiction, Fantasy Juvenile Worlds, and Science Fiction Utopias. Each title includes details on length, reading time, and subject tags, so you can choose a book that fits your interests and schedule.
The tools on this page help you navigate the collection. Use the Finder to search by category, length, or subject. The Compare tool lets you weigh two books side by side. The Reading companion offers honest estimates of reading time and sentence complexity, so you know what to expect before you start.
Pinpoint books by category, length, or subject. With 95 titles across four categories and tags like detective stories or historical fiction, you can narrow the list to match your taste.
Place two books side by side to see word count, reading time, and subject overlap. Useful for choosing between similar works or planning a reading order.
Get honest estimates of reading time based on word count, plus average sentence length. Know before you start whether a book is a quick read or a longer commitment.
The YHOCAM Public Domain Literature Library offers three tools that work best when used in sequence: Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker. Each serves a distinct purpose, but together they help you move from a vague sense of what you might enjoy to a concrete plan for reading. The catalog holds 95 public-domain titles across four categories, ranging from Adventure Picaresque Fiction to Science Fiction Utopias. Because the collection is small and focused, the tools are not just filters; they let you see how one choice affects another. For example, a book like "The path of honor: A tale of the war in the Bocage — Key Ideas to Explore" sits in Historical Psychological Social Fiction, with a word count near 78,000 and an estimated reading time of about 341 minutes. That combination of category, length, and time gives you a sense of the commitment before you begin.
Book Finder is the natural starting point because it lets you set broad criteria: category, word-count length, estimated reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, and subjects. You might select Historical Psychological Social Fiction and the "long" length band, or choose a subject like "Dime novels" to see which of the six titles in that subject appear. The tool does not penalize you for leaving criteria at no preference, so you can start with just one or two filters and then widen your view. For instance, if you are drawn to stories set in France, selecting the subject "France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction" would surface "The path of honor" alongside any other matching titles.
Once Book Finder narrows the list to two or three candidates, Compare Books puts them side by side. The comparison shows word count, estimated reading time, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, subjects, and page information when available. These metrics are descriptive, not judgments of quality. You might compare "The path of honor" with a shorter title like "The Gold Brick" (about 70,000 words) to see how the difference in sections affects pacing. The path of honor has 42 text sections, while The Gold Brick has 17, so the former likely breaks the story into smaller pieces, which can suit readers who prefer frequent stopping points.
After you choose a book, the Reading Tracker helps you plan and monitor your reading. It records progress in pages, with a current page, total pages, and a daily page goal. The default goal is 20 pages per day, but you can adjust it. The initial page count is estimated by dividing the word count by 250 words per page, unless the catalog provides a fixed page count. For "The path of honor," that estimate would be about 314 pages. If your own edition shows a different total, you can replace the estimate. The tracker then calculates estimated remaining time and finish days, storing your history in the browser without requiring an account.