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The climb — twelve levels

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The library — books to read, free

What can I read on Readeroom for free?

A curated shelf of public-domain classics. Open any of them in Readeroom’s reader — paced, spoken aloud, or read the ordinary way — and every book you finish counts towards how your reading is measured.

Starting out

Shorter, warmer books that carry you along — a good place to build the habit.

Alice's Adventures in WonderlandLewis Carroll26,703 words · about 2 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up
The Wonderful Wizard of OzL. Frank Baum39,848 words · about 3 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up
Peter PanJ. M. Barrie47,359 words · about 3.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up
The Jungle BookRudyard Kipling51,461 words · about 3.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up
Black Beauty

Reading these is free.

Make an account and the whole shelf opens, along with the reader, the pacing modes and the measurement.

Measure how you read today

Anna Sewell

59,997 words · about 4 hours

Accessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRM

For ages 9 and up

The Secret GardenFrances Hodgson Burnett80,986 words · about 5.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up

Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery102,845 words · about 7 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up

The Wind in the WillowsKenneth Grahame58,617 words · about 4 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up

Treasure IslandRobert Louis Stevenson68,575 words · about 5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up

Adventure

Ships, wolves, islands and long journeys. Hard to put down, which is the point.

The Jungle BookRudyard Kipling51,461 words · about 3.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · recording + device voices · no DRMFor ages 6 and up
Treasure IslandRobert Louis Stevenson68,575 words · about 5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up
The call of the wildJack London31,916 words · about 2 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up
White FangJack London72,311 words · about 5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up
Around the World in Eighty DaysJules Verne

Mystery & detection

Puzzles with a pulse — and the books that invented most of the genre.

The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle104,696 words · about 7.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
The Hound of the BaskervillesArthur Conan Doyle59,412 words · about 4 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
The MoonstoneWilkie Collins195,354 words · about 13.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
The Mysterious Affair at StylesAgatha Christie56,764 words · about 4 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

Classics you will meet at school

The set texts, unabridged. Read them ahead of the class rather than behind it.

Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen127,552 words · about 9 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
Jane Eyre: An AutobiographyCharlotte Brontë185,717 words · about 13 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
Wuthering HeightsEmily Brontë116,216 words · about 8 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
Great ExpectationsCharles Dickens185,029 words · about 13 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
A Tale of Two Cities

For working life

Strategy, persuasion and self-command, from people who had to practise it.

The Art of Waractive 6th century B.C. Sunzi55,477 words · about 4 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli50,210 words · about 3.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
MeditationsEmperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius77,580 words · about 5.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin67,192 words · about 4.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

Science & big ideas

Arguments that changed how people see the world, in their authors’ own words.

The Time MachineH. G. Wells32,564 words · about 2.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection / Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for LifeCharles Darwin156,892 words · about 11 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
Relativity: The Special and General TheoryAlbert Einstein32,087 words · about 2.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up
Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsEdwin Abbott Abbott33,948 words · about 2.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

63,878 words · about 4.5 hours

Accessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRM

For ages 9 and up

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the SeaJules Verne105,344 words · about 7.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 9 and up

King Solomon's MinesH. Rider Haggard82,692 words · about 6 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

The three musketeersAlexandre Dumas230,244 words · about 16 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

The Time MachineH. G. Wells32,564 words · about 2.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

Charles Dickens

136,361 words · about 9.5 hours

Accessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRM

For ages 13 and up

Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheusMary Wollstonecraft Shelley75,179 words · about 5.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

DraculaBram Stoker161,310 words · about 11.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald48,242 words · about 3.5 hoursAccessible: real text · contents · device voices · no DRMFor ages 13 and up

Free books to read — Readeroom