A companion for the classics
Read the books that made the world.
Some of the finest things ever written have gathered dust for want of a patient guide. Old Book Reader is that guide: it finds you the right book, sets it out beautifully, and stays beside you when the language grows old and strange.
And if the book you long for was never put into good English, ask. We'll translate it afresh and bring it to your shelf.
We'll write once when Old Book Reader is ready for you. Or wander through the library first.
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”
So many of those conversations have fallen silent: hidden behind old turns of phrase, a world that has slipped from memory, and editions long out of print.
Old Book Reader quietly brings them back, so that a book written two hundred years ago can be read this evening, in your favourite chair, with pleasure.
What Old Book Reader does
Discovering the book
Tell us what you're in the mood for, a long winter's novel, a voyage, a quarrel with history, and we'll suggest something worth your evenings, from the great books to the rare and long out of print. And if it isn't here yet, ask for it.
Reading it in peace
The author's own words, set with care on a calm page. When a sentence turns knotty, a plain-English reading is there the moment you want it, and gone when you don't.
Understanding it, at your own pace
Touch any passage and ask what it means, who someone was, or what the world was like when it was written, as you might ask a well-read friend across the table. A dictionary sits within reach, and the author's notes open gently in place.
Chapter I
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families…
Austen opens with irony: the “truth” is really the hope of families with daughters to marry. In her time a good marriage was a woman's main path to security, which is the pressure the whole novel turns on.
Ask for a book
The book you can't find, or can't find in good English. We'll bring it to you.
Tell us the title
Even half-remembered: the librarian will work out which book you mean.
We prepare it
We find the best old edition, check that it's free to use, and translate it faithfully into clear, modern English.
It arrives on your shelf
Usually within a few days, labelled as translated with the help of AI.
Do you have The True Word by Celsus?
Not yet, but we can prepare it for you: one of the earliest attacks on Christianity, written around 178 AD, translated afresh into clear English.
The True Word
Celsus
Your book is ready
The True Word is on your shelf, newly translated. Open it whenever you like.
More than 1450 classics on the shelf, and more arriving
Lovingly prepared editions of the books worth reading slowly, from Austen and Tolstoy to Darwin and Maistre.
Missing a book you love? Ask for it, and we'll prepare it for you.
However you like to read
Android
On your Android tablet
From Google Play.
Coming soon
Apple
On your iPad
From the App Store.
Coming soon
A reading tablet
On a tablet made for reading
We send it to you with Old Book Reader already set up, so that all that's left is to open the first page.
Coming soon
Works on most recent Android tablets; we'll recommend a good one if you need it.
Pricing coming soon
A simple monthly subscription: the whole library and every book we add, the explanations and suggestions, and your highlights, notes and bookmarks kept safe. Leave whenever you like. In the United States for now.
Join the waitlistA few questions
- Do you change the books?
- Never the author's words. Books first written in English are exactly as the author wrote them. Books from other languages are new translations that keep closely to the author's meaning, clearly labelled. Help with a difficult passage is there when you ask for it, and never takes the author's place.
- What about books written in other languages?
- Some great works were never easy to read in English. We prepare faithful new translations of them, clearly labelled as translated with the help of AI, and you can ask for one.
- Can I read without the internet?
- Yes. Your books, dictionary, highlights and notes all travel with you, offline. Explanations and suggestions need a connection.
- Which books are in the library?
- Classics that are free of copyright in the United States. New ones arrive regularly, and readers can ask for titles.
- Are the explanations always right?
- They are written by AI from the passage and the book around it. They're usually helpful, but can make mistakes, so treat them as a knowledgeable friend rather than the last word.