Ginquill

For readers who stall halfway through a long book

A long classic is easy to start and easy to abandon. Ginquill gives it a rhythm instead of a goal: you never have more than the day's post, you can never read ahead, and the gaps between entries become part of the story — the week Dorothy writes nothing, the five days Nellie Bly is stuck in Colombo.

What it does

Inside the app

Start with these thirty

Every author died more than a hundred years ago and every edition predates 1930, so each text is in the public domain worldwide. Sources and licences are listed in the app for every book.

• Around the World in Seventy-Two Days — Nellie Bly · 14 November 1889 – 25 January 1890 · author died 1922
• Memorial de Aires — Machado de Assis · A diplomat's diary in Rio, 1888–1889 · author died 1908
• The Grasmere Journal — Dorothy Wordsworth · 14 May – 21 December 1800 · author died 1855
• Daddy-Long-Legs — Jean Webster · Letters from four years of college · author died 1916
• Carta a El-Rei D. Manuel — Pero Vaz de Caminha · The letter on the finding of Brazil, 1500 · author died 1520
• The Voyage of the Beagle — Charles Darwin · Around the world with a young naturalist, 1832–1836 · author died 1882
• A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains — Isabella L. Bird · Letters from Colorado on horseback, 1873 · author died 1904
• Unbeaten Tracks in Japan — Isabella L. Bird · Letters from northern Japan, 1878 · author died 1904
• The Hawaiian Archipelago — Isabella L. Bird · Six months among the islands, 1873 · author died 1904
• My First Summer in the Sierra — John Muir · A shepherd's journal, June–September 1869 · author died 1914
• A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf — John Muir · On foot from Kentucky to Florida, 1867 · author died 1914
• Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland — Dorothy Wordsworth · Six weeks with William and Coleridge, 1803 · author died 1855
• The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon — Henry Fielding · A novelist's last voyage, summer 1754 · author died 1754
• The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides — James Boswell · With Dr Johnson through the Highlands, 1773 · author died 1795
• Letters from Switzerland and Travels in Italy — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · Goethe's Italian journey, 1786–1787 · author died 1832
• Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands — Queen Victoria · A queen's holidays in Scotland, 1842–1861 · author died 1901
• Rural Rides — William Cobbett · On horseback through southern England, 1821–1832 · author died 1835
• Dear Enemy — Jean Webster · A year running an orphanage, in letters · author died 1916
• The Natural History of Selborne — Gilbert White · Letters about birds, beasts and weather, 1767–1787 · author died 1793
• The Letters of Jane Austen — Jane Austen · Letters to Cassandra and others, 1796–1817 · author died 1817
• Letters to His Family and Friends — John Keats · A poet's letters, 1817–1820 · author died 1821
• The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett — Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett · Two poets write to each other, 1845 · author died 1889
• Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams — John Adams and Abigail Adams · A marriage in letters during the Revolution, 1774–1783 · author died 1826
• The Journal to Stella — Jonathan Swift · Letters from London to Dublin, 1710–1713 · author died 1745
• Letters from Egypt — Lucie Duff Gordon · A house in Luxor, 1862–1869 · author died 1869
• The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay — Fanny Burney · A young novelist in London society, 1778–1781 · author died 1840
• Journal, 1850–1851 — Henry David Thoreau · Walks around Concord, 1850–1851 · author died 1862
• The Diary of John Evelyn, Volume 1 — John Evelyn · Travels and London life, 1641–1664 · author died 1706
• Ao Correr da Pena — José de Alencar · Weekly chronicles of Rio de Janeiro, 1854–1855 · author died 1877
• Correspondência de Euclides da Cunha — Euclides da Cunha · Letters of the author of Os Sertões, 1890–1909 · author died 1909

A few passages of graphic cruelty and period slurs are omitted; each cut is marked […] in the app. Rated 13+.