Recommendations for books and stories that can be read in a browser?

Ernestine · 10-04-2026, 03:38 PM

Hi everyone

I often browse MobileRead as a guest, and thought I’d finally join in and start a thread collecting recommendations of texts that can be read directly in your browser (I often read on a phone, simply because that’s the device I always have with me).

A few places to start:

- https://www.gutenberg.org/ : a large collection of classic books, with a "Read online" option.
- https://americanliterature.com/short-stories/ : classic short stories, with collections that make it easy to find something for a short reading break.
- https://www.openclassics.org/ : fairy tales and folk tales with historical illustrations, identified editions and optional modern wording.
- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page : books, poetry and other texts, often with scans of the source edition alongside the transcription.

KBAILEY90 · 10-07-2026, 10:44 AM

Nice list!! I'd add Standard Ebooks (https://standardebooks.org). They're public domain books like Gutenberg's, but cleaned up and nicely typeset, and every book page has a "Read online" option. It reads well on a phone too.

Let me know how you like it!

JSWolf · 10-07-2026, 10:55 AM

delete post

JSWolf · 10-07-2026, 11:00 AM

Is there any site that has full justification, hyphenation, and no paragraph spaces in a browser?

Maxbet · 10-13-2026, 05:38 PM

Another interesting option is East of the Web. It has a nice collection of short stories that you can read directly in your browser, organized by genre.
One thing I particularly like about the concept is being able to choose a story based on its length. That's really convenient when you only have 10 or 15 minutes to read.
For anyone who enjoys classics, "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton is a fun little story worth checking out.
I think short stories are also a great way to discover authors you might never have considered reading otherwise.

WillAdams · 10-13-2026, 06:16 PM

H. Beam Piper's wonderful novella "Omnilingual" is available on-line in a lightly-edited and updated version at:

https://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/omnilingual.html

Highly recommended.

JSWolf · 10-14-2026, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillAdams

H. Beam Piper's wonderful novella "Omnilingual" is available on-line in a lightly-edited and updated version at:

https://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/omnilingual.html

Highly recommended.

Not recommended at all in a browser. No hyphenation and the em-dashes have spaces around them. Things that need to be fixed.

10-04-2026, 03:38 PM	#1
Ernestine Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2026 Device: Redmi Pad	Recommendations for books and stories that can be read in a browser? Hi everyone I often browse MobileRead as a guest, and thought I’d finally join in and start a thread collecting recommendations of texts that can be read directly in your browser (I often read on a phone, simply because that’s the device I always have with me). A few places to start: - https://www.gutenberg.org/ : a large collection of classic books, with a "Read online" option. - https://americanliterature.com/short-stories/ : classic short stories, with collections that make it easy to find something for a short reading break. - https://www.openclassics.org/ : fairy tales and folk tales with historical illustrations, identified editions and optional modern wording. - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page : books, poetry and other texts, often with scans of the source edition alongside the transcription.

10-07-2026, 10:55 AM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 85,419 Karma: 154365103 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	delete post Last edited by JSWolf; 10-07-2026 at 11:02 AM.

10-07-2026, 11:00 AM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 85,419 Karma: 154365103 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Is there any site that has full justification, hyphenation, and no paragraph spaces in a browser? Last edited by JSWolf; 10-07-2026 at 11:02 AM.

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10-07-2026, 10:44 AM	#2
KBAILEY90 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 12 Join Date: Sep 2026 Device: none	Nice list!! I'd add Standard Ebooks (https://standardebooks.org). They're public domain books like Gutenberg's, but cleaned up and nicely typeset, and every book page has a "Read online" option. It reads well on a phone too. Let me know how you like it!

10-13-2026, 05:38 PM	#5
Maxbet Member Posts: 11 Karma: 3304 Join Date: Oct 2026 Location: Brazil Device: none	Another interesting option is East of the Web. It has a nice collection of short stories that you can read directly in your browser, organized by genre. One thing I particularly like about the concept is being able to choose a story based on its length. That's really convenient when you only have 10 or 15 minutes to read. For anyone who enjoys classics, "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton is a fun little story worth checking out. I think short stories are also a great way to discover authors you might never have considered reading otherwise.

10-13-2026, 06:16 PM	#6
WillAdams Wizard Posts: 1,287 Karma: 3982000 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Amazon Kindle Scribe and Paperwhite (300ppi)	H. Beam Piper's wonderful novella "Omnilingual" is available on-line in a lightly-edited and updated version at: https://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/omnilingual.html Highly recommended.