Midsentence Live ▸ The Reading Room
Midsentence

The Reading Room

On demand · whole books, one word at a time

The live reader runs whether you're watching or not. This is the other thing. Here the books sit still until you pick one — then they read the only way anything reads here: one word at a time, on the crosshair, at the pace the writing wants. You start at a beginning. There's no fast-forward. There never is.

Short sidesunder an hour — one sitting
The Yellow Wallpaper Gilman · 360 wpm · 6,140 words · unread 18:33 the audiobook is ~40 min The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Irving · 385 wpm · 12,161 words · unread 34:15 the audiobook is ~1½ hr Bartleby, the Scrivener Melville · 375 wpm · 14,457 words · unread 42:31 the audiobook is ~1½ hr
An eveningan hour or three, one sitting
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Carroll · 405 wpm · 26,612 words · unread 1:10:38 the audiobook is ~2½ hr The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Stevenson · 380 wpm · 25,601 words · unread 1:12:42 the audiobook is ~3 hr The Call of the Wild London · 440 wpm · 31,756 words · unread 1:19:12 the audiobook is ~3½ hr Through the Looking-Glass Carroll · 400 wpm · 29,569 words · unread 1:19:39 the audiobook is ~3 hr A Christmas Carol Dickens · 385 wpm · 28,402 words · unread 1:23:16 the audiobook is ~3½ hr The Time Machine Wells · 400 wpm · 32,463 words · unread 1:29:08 the audiobook is ~3½ hr The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Baum · 420 wpm · 39,140 words · unread 1:39:05 the audiobook is ~4 hr A Study in Scarlet Doyle · 420 wpm · 43,291 words · unread 1:51:37 the audiobook is ~4½ hr Heart of Darkness Conrad · 370 wpm · 38,527 words · unread 1:54:44 the audiobook is ~4 hr The Invisible Man Wells · 410 wpm · 48,641 words · unread 2:11:17 the audiobook is ~5 hr The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald · 390 wpm · 48,557 words · unread 2:14:50 the audiobook is ~5 hr The Hound of the Baskervilles Doyle · 410 wpm · 59,174 words · unread 2:34:04 the audiobook is ~6½ hr The War of the Worlds Wells · 410 wpm · 60,044 words · unread 2:39:59 the audiobook is ~6½ hr Around the World in Eighty Days Verne · 420 wpm · 62,372 words · unread 2:44:15 the audiobook is ~7 hr Treasure Island Stevenson · 420 wpm · 67,656 words · unread 2:54:53 the audiobook is ~7 hr The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Twain · 420 wpm · 70,529 words · unread 3:04:13 the audiobook is ~7½ hr The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde · 390 wpm · 78,728 words · unread 3:42:44 the audiobook is ~8 hr Frankenstein Shelley · 360 wpm · 75,038 words · unread 3:46:15 the audiobook is ~8½ hr
The long sideshours, not minutes — bring a chair
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Doyle · 420 wpm · 104,539 words · unread 4:27:03 the audiobook is ~11½ hr The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain · 410 wpm · 110,792 words · unread 4:49:05 the audiobook is ~11 hr Wuthering Heights E. Brontë · 380 wpm · 116,538 words · unread 5:36:48 the audiobook is ~12 hr Pride and Prejudice Austen · 390 wpm · 121,580 words · unread 5:38:43 the audiobook is ~11 hr A Tale of Two Cities Dickens · 385 wpm · 135,421 words · unread 6:24:11 the audiobook is ~14 hr Dracula Stoker · 390 wpm · 160,700 words · unread 7:23:54 the audiobook is ~15½ hr Emma Austen · 390 wpm · 160,357 words · unread 7:26:11 the audiobook is ~16½ hr Jane Eyre C. Brontë · 400 wpm · 186,265 words · unread 8:27:14 the audiobook is ~19 hr Great Expectations Dickens · 385 wpm · 185,304 words · unread 8:38:22 the audiobook is ~18½ hr Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky · 375 wpm · 202,565 words · unread 9:59:21 the audiobook is ~21 hr Moby-Dick; or, The Whale Melville · 370 wpm · 209,399 words · unread 10:24:07 the audiobook is ~21 hr The Count of Monte Cristo Dumas · 400 wpm · 461,585 words · unread 20:55:49 the audiobook is ~47 hr
Public-domain works, read at each book's authored pace. Progress lives in this browser and nowhere else — no account, yours to keep and yours to lose. · The live reader · About