The Ceiling Library

Thirty books that are free, legal to read anywhere, and short enough per chapter to finish one before you fall asleep. All of them open in your browser, so you can put them on the ceiling tonight — you do not have to wait for the projector to arrive to try the idea.

Reading these on a ceiling
  1. Open a title below. Gutenberg's web edition reflows, so it scales without going blurry — unlike a PDF.
  2. Zoom your browser to 200-300%. On a phone, pinch out until a line spans the screen.
  3. Cast or mirror the screen to the projector, or plug in over HDMI.
  4. Turn the lamp off. Text on white is bright enough on its own.

Short enough for one night

  • The Metamorphosis
    Franz Kafka     Open →
  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
    Robert Louis Stevenson     Open →
  • A Christmas Carol
    Charles Dickens     Open →
  • The Yellow Wallpaper
    Charlotte Perkins Gilman     Open →
  • The Time Machine
    H. G. Wells     Open →
  • Heart of Darkness
    Joseph Conrad     Open →
  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
    Washington Irving     Open →
  • Flatland
    Edwin A. Abbott     Open →

Comfort reading

  • Pride and Prejudice
    Jane Austen     Open →
  • Emma
    Jane Austen     Open →
  • Little Women
    Louisa May Alcott     Open →
  • Anne of Green Gables
    L. M. Montgomery     Open →
  • The Secret Garden
    Frances Hodgson Burnett     Open →
  • Jane Eyre
    Charlotte Brontë     Open →
  • Wuthering Heights
    Emily Brontë     Open →

Stay awake for one more chapter

  • Dracula
    Bram Stoker     Open →
  • Frankenstein
    Mary Shelley     Open →
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
    Arthur Conan Doyle     Open →
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles
    Arthur Conan Doyle     Open →
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Oscar Wilde     Open →
  • Treasure Island
    Robert Louis Stevenson     Open →
  • The War of the Worlds
    H. G. Wells     Open →

Big ones, if you have the winter

  • Moby Dick
    Herman Melville     Open →
  • Crime and Punishment
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky     Open →
  • Great Expectations
    Charles Dickens     Open →
  • The Count of Monte Cristo
    Alexandre Dumas     Open →
  • Anna Karenina
    Leo Tolstoy     Open →

Not fiction

Every title here is in the public domain and hosted by Project Gutenberg, a non-profit. Nothing is ours and nothing is paywalled — we just picked the thirty that read well on a ceiling.