L. Frank Baum takes us through the adventures of Santa Claus beginning with his adoption as an infant by Necile the nymph. As a youth, Claus discovers fellow humans on earth and returns to their world where he decides his duty is to make children...

William Winwood Reade (1838 - 1875) was a British historian, explorer, and philosopher.His most famous work, the Martyrdom of Man (1872)—whose summary running head reads "From Nebula to Nation"—is a secular, "universal" history of the Western world....

When the pace of railroad construction slackened in 1914, Canada had achieved a remarkable position in the railway world. Only five other countries—the United States, Russia, Germany, India, and, by a small margin, France—possessed a greater...

Maturin Murray Ballou was the author of dozens of books, chiefly centered around his extensive sea travel. He was deputy navy-agent in the Boston Custom House and circumnavigated in 1882, collecting material for several travel accounts and various...

This is volume 2 of 4. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next...

This third volume of Mark Twain's journal writings continues on eclectic and varied path established by the first two volumes. Included in this collection are works that appeared by themselves in magazines during Twain's lifetime, as well as essays...

Kathleen O'Hara is a young pretty girl sent to school in England from Ireland by her father to get a good education, but Kathleen has other ideas. She quickly become friends with the girls of the school who don't pay for their education and in turn...

This history begins when Pizarro and Almagro, Valdivia and Benalcazar, led their desperadoes across the Isthmus to the conquest, massacre, and enslavement of the prosperous and civilised millions who inhabited the Pacific coast of South America. It...

Ibn Battuta (1304 – ca. 1369), was a Moroccan explorer. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands. His journeys included trips to North Africa, West Africa, the Horn of...

Plenty of princesses have been cursed by wicked witches, but the curse placed on this princess by her evil aunt is an unusual one: it removes all the princess's gravity. What can break the curse before the princess floats away? Perhaps the best...

In this sequel to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", Alice is playing with her kittens — a black kitten and a white kitten, the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in the first book — when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a...

The World I Live In by Helen Keller is a collection of essays that poignantly tells of her impressions of the world, through her sense of touch, smell, her imagination and dreams. My hand is to me what your hearing and sight together are to you. In...

This book follows the three amazing stories of Adoniram Judson's wives, Ann, Sarah, and Emily. Each wife went through incredible hardships, but each hardship only proved to make them strong women of faith, who despite all difficulties and illnesses,...

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been recognized as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris...

A selection of short works about Christmas. (Summary by david wales)...

This is a collection of short (15 minute or less readings) fiction or non-fiction works in English suitable for a coffee break at work or a short commuter ride. The theme for this collection is HodgePodge: humor, romance, science, long poems,...

This is an open collection of poems for the month of February 2009....

A woman is apparently murdered in a New York auditorium under very suspicious circumstances one evening during a performance. Helen Hardwick happened to be in attendance that evening, as she had written the play that was being performed, and she was...

We meet Miss Lucretia Lane as she is dressing for her marriage to Captain Francis Reynolds of the British Merchant Service. Though he loves her truly, she has severe misgivings. She goes through with the wedding in spite of this, but refuses to live...

"Cocher, drive to the rue Falguière"--this in my best restaurant French. The man with the varnished hat shrugged his shoulders, and raised his eyebrows in doubt. He evidently had never heard of the rue Falguière. "Yes, rue Falguière, the old rue des...