The Online Books Page

Books and reading

Here are entered works on the significance of books in people's lives, including their attitudes toward and interest in reading. Works on the art of reading are entered under Reading.

See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.

• Reading
• Books
• Literature

• Reading interests

• Books and reading -- Australia
• Books and reading -- England
• Books and reading -- Europe
• Books and reading -- Fiction
• Books and reading -- Germany
• Books and reading -- Great Britain
• Books and reading -- History
• Books and reading -- India
• Books and reading -- Juvenile fiction
• Books and reading -- Latin America
• Books and reading -- New England
• Books and reading -- Periodicals
• Books and reading -- Social aspects
• Books and reading -- Southern States
• Books and reading -- United States
• Best sellers
• Books -- Reviews
• Popular literature
• Prohibited books
• Readability (Literary style)
• Readership surveys
• African American children -- Books and reading
• Blind -- Books and reading
• Boys -- Books and reading
• Children -- Books and reading
• Families -- Books and reading
• Girls -- Books and reading
• Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961 -- Books and reading
• Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 -- Books and reading
• Jewish women -- Books and reading
• Men -- Books and reading
• People with disabilities -- Books and reading
• People with visual disabilities -- Books and reading
• Single women -- Books and reading
• Soldiers -- Books and reading
• Women -- Books and reading
• Working class -- Books and reading

• Appraisal of books
• Books -- Appraisal
• Choice of books
• Evaluation of literature
• Literature -- Evaluation
• Reading and books
• Reading, Choice of
• Reading habits
• Reading public

• How We Read: Tales, Fury, Nothing, Sound (Earth: Punctum Books, c2019), ed. by Kaitlin Heller and Suzanne Conklin Akbari (PDF with commentary at Punctum Books)
• Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, c2006), by Lisa Zunshine (PDF at Ohio State)
• All the Books of My Life (c1956), by Sheila Kaye-Smith (HTML in Canada; NO US ACCESS)
• Books and You (book version, c1940), by W. Somerset Maugham (HTML in Canada; NO US ACCESS)
• Books and Bookmen, by Ian Maclaren (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• Books and Culture (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, c1896), by Hamilton Wright Mabie
  • HTML at Elegant Ebooks
  • Gutenberg text
  • searchable page images at Google; US access only
• Books and Reading: or, What Books Shall I Read and How Shall I Read Them?, by Noah Porter (page images at MOA)
• On Reading: An Essay (New York: Duffield and Co., 1906), by Georg Brandes (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Seven Joys of Reading (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1916), by Mary Wright Plummer
  • multiple formats at Indiana
  • multiple formats at archive.org
• Matters of Fact: Reading Nonfiction Over the Edge (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1997), by Daniel W. Lehman (PDF at Ohio State)
• Books Alive: A Profane Chronicle of Literary Endeavor and Literary Misdemeanor (New York: Random House, 1940), by Vincent Starrett, contrib. by Christopher Morley (page images at HathiTrust)
• Peace of Mind: Essays and Reflections, August 1914-September 1917 (London: A. Melrose, 1918) (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
  • Gutenberg text and audio
  • HTML at Bibliomania
• Northanger Abbey (London: J. M Dent and Co.; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1907), by Jane Austen, contrib. by R. Brimley Johnson, illust. by C. E. Brock (illustrated HTML with commentary at fiftywordsforsnow.com)
• Sleeping Fires, by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (Gutenberg text)

• On the Art of Reading (Cambridge, UK: At the University Press, 1939), by Arthur Quiller-Couch (Gutenberg text)
• Books in General (first series; New York: A. A. Knopf, 1919), by John Collings Squire (page images at HathiTrust)
• Books in General: Second Series (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1920), by John Collings Squire (page images at HathiTrust)
• Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, April 2nd, 1866, by Thomas Carlyle (HTML at Bartleby)
• On the Art of Reading: Lectures Delivered in the University of Cambridge, 1916-1917, by Arthur Quiller-Couch (HTML at Bartleby)
• On the Choice of Books (with a long biographical essay on the author), by Thomas Carlyle, contrib. by Richard Herne Shepherd (Gutenberg text)
• Through the Magic Door, by Arthur Conan Doyle (Gutenberg text)
• Paintings From Books: Art and Literature in Britain, 1760-1900 (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, c1985), by Richard D. Altick (PDF files with commentary at Ohio State Press)
• Literary Taste: How to Form It, With Detailed Instructions for Collecting a Complete Library of English Literature (seventh edition, 1914), by Arnold Bennett (Gutenberg text)

• Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, c2016), by Kathryn M. Rudy (PDF and HTML with commentary at Open Book Publishers)

• A Sanskrit Librarian Comes to America (1999), by Murari Lal Nagar, ed. by Margaret Ruth Lee (PDF at Missouri)

• Girls in Bookland (New York: G. H. Doran Co., c1917), by Hildegarde Hawthorne, illust. by John Wolcott Adams (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)

• Reader's Digest (partial serial archives)
• Appleton's Magazine (full serial archives)
• Good Reading About Many Books, Mostly by Their Authors (partial serial archives)

• Ending Book Hunger: Access to Print Across Barriers of Class and Culture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, c2019), by Lea Bishop Shaver (PDF with commentary at bookhunger.org)

• To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence (2007), by National Endowment for the Arts (PDF at nea.gov)
• The Republic of Letters: Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin on Books, Reading, and Libraries, 1975-1987 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989), by Daniel J. Boorstin, ed. by John Young Cole (HTML at loc.gov)
• The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture From Consumerism to Control (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), by Theodore G. Striphas (zipped PDF with commentary at thelateageofprint.org)
• The Delicious Vice: Pipe Dreams and Fond Adventures of an Habitual Novel-Reader Among Some Great Books and Their People (second edition; Chicago: The Prairieland Publishing Co., 1918), by Young Ewing Allison (Gutenberg text)
• The Guide to Reading, ed. by Lyman Abbott and Asa Don Dickinson (Gutenberg text)
• A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1916), by Theodore Roosevelt
  • Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML
  • HTML at Bartleby

• It Goes On the Shelf, ed. by Cuyler W. Brooks (full serial archives)

• Books Fatal to Their Authors, by P. H. Ditchfield (Gutenberg text)
• The Judging of Jurgen (Chicago: The Bookfellows, 1920), by James Branch Cabell (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, Exhibited in an Account of Her Damnatory Catalogues or Indexes, Both Prohibitory and Expurgatory, With Various Illustrative Extracts, Anecdotes, and Remarks (second edition; London: J. Duncan, 1830), by Joseph Mendham (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Roman Index of Forbidden Books, Briefly Explained for Catholic Booklovers and Students (second edition; St. Louis, MO: B. Herder; et al., 1909), by Francis S. Betten
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • multiple formats at archive.org
• The Roman Index of Forbidden Books, Briefly Explained for Catholic Booklovers and Students (fifth edition; St. Louis, MO, and London: B. Herder, 1920), by Francis S. Betten (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Censorship of the Church of Rome and Its Influence Upon the Production and Distribution of Literature: A Study of the History of the Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes, Together With Some Consideration of the Effects of Protestant Censorship and of Censorship by the State (2 volumes; New York and London: G. P Putnam's Sons, 1906-1907), by George Haven Putnam (page images at HathiTrust)

• Wallace Stevens, Musing the Obscure: Readings, an Interpretation, and a Guide to the Collected Poetry (New York: New York University Press, 1967), by Ronald Sukenick (PDF files at Wayback Machine)

• The Audiences of 5 Magazines: Size, Characteristics, Possessions, Cost Analysis: Newsweek, Time, U. S. News and World Report, Life, The Saturday Evening Post (New York, Newsweek, c1962), by Audits & Surveys (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Upward Path: A Reader for Colored Children (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, c1920), ed. by Myron T. Pritchard and Mary White Ovington, contrib. by Robert Russa Moton
  • Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Dare to be Creative! A Lecture Presented at the Library of Congress, November 16, 1983 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1984), by Madeleine L'Engle, contrib. by John Young Cole and Sybille A. Jagusch (page images at HathiTrust)
• Selected Books for Young Children; Selected Pictures for Young Children (second edition; New York: Educational Playthings, c1934), by Alice Dalgliesh and Rita Scherman (page images at HathiTrust)
• Children's Booklist, by Theosophical Society Children's Committee (HTML at theosophy-nw.org)
• A Pleasing Toy for Children (Concord, NH: Rufus Merrill, 1843)
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • multiple formats at archive.org

More items available under narrower terms.