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Monthly Challenge

2025

Welcome to the Monthly Challenge!

  • Each month, the challenge aims to proofread and validate several texts.
  • It provides a safe space for new users to learn about Wikisource.
  • The texts are featured for a maximum of three months with a few exceptions.
  • The challenge builds Wikisource's core collection and makes free, scan-backed ebooks accessible to everyone.

Shortcut:
WS:MC/NOM

Suggest nominations below. When successful, the works can be added to a monthly data table (e.g. Module:Monthly Challenge/data/2025-02, or a future month) and they will be included in the relevant months' challenges.

  • Add nominations at the end of this section via this link
  • For each nomination, please provide an author, title, publication date and link to the index. If you believe the work is likely to be opposed, please leave a reason why the work should be featured.
    • If you cannot create an index (and you are strongly urged to do so before nominating), please leave a full citation. Remember, Wikisource only allows works in the Public Domain in the USA.
  • Please create a separate section for each work nominated. This allows easier discussion and archiving of each nomination.
  • Works will typically be added to the MC if they a) have an index, and b) have not been opposed. Reasonable grounds for opposition (besides PD concerns) include, complex formatting, be it of Shakespearean dramas or lengthy tables, parallel language texts, or works which are not PD in the UK, but are in the US. [If I have missed any reasonable grounds for opposition, please add them to this list, or remove if incorrect.]
  • Re-nominations of previously stalled works is allowed if you think they will get renewed interest. There is a list here.
  • If anyone wishes to nominate works from the following lists: Category:Mainspace pages with transcluded OCR errors, Category:Migrated texts requiring clean up, Category:Incomplete texts, Category:Texts to be migrated to scans, ShakespeareFan00's Adventures list feel free, else works will be selected at fancy, until the MC has between 60 and 80 titles. Some other suggestions for where to find nominations include Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction and this website.


Unopposed Nominations Without an Index

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Unopposed Nominations With an Index

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[Note that at present, this list includes works which are running in the current MC]

Nominations for Validation

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Themed or Long-Term Nominations

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2024 nominations

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Diary of a Journey Across Arabia

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Diary of a Journey Across Arabia (1819) by Captain G. Forster Sadlier is a travel account of his diplomatic mission across the Arabian Peninsula. It provides rare insights into Arabian culture, politics, and the regional movement and conflict during that time.

Hi, Do you happen to know if there are any other good scans of this work? I found one on internet archive (https://ia803408.us.archive.org/2/items/dli.ministry.01689/9942.E12836_Diary_of_a_journey_across_Arabia.pdf), although the quality wasn't great. At present, I have downloaded the version from the link you provided, but am concerned that as every page is tagged with the Qatar National Library logo, it may be ineligible to upload to commons (see, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qatar-National-Library-Logo.png). I may be able to upload the above to Wikisource directly if there are no other good scans, but figured I would ask first. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 20:38, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Riverside song book

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A 19th-century collection of folk songs, hymns, and traditional music, compiled by W. M. Lawrence in 1893. It was created for educational use, especially in schools, to teach music and promote cultural understanding. The book includes a variety of accessible songs, from patriotic tunes to folk and classical pieces, reflecting American and European traditions.

Musical talent and the ability to read and write musical scores are needed for this book. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated, and we hope that people will enjoy listening to the results.

Goethe's theory of colours

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Ancient Records of Egypt

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While this series would be challenging because of the tables and dotted letters, the five volumes contain academic translations of ancient Egyptian texts, and might attract a crowd to work on transcription.

--EncycloPetey (talk) 22:43, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  • For the moment, I might leave this under discussion. If anyone has any ideas about how to preserve braces in the page entries of dot-leader tables let me know, otherwise this might be one of those works where a hard and fast, no dot leaders rule, should have to be applied. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 21:06, 28 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Qur'an (Palmer)

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It's crazy that we don't have a full version of the Qur'an, which is arguably the second-most popular book in the world (see wikipedia:List of best-selling books for an explanation). This is a bit unusual for a work in that it uses two indices instead of one, namely Index:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu and Index:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 9.djvu, but this can be easily fixed by listing them separately. Duckmather (talk) 02:41, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for this suggestion! FPTI (talk) 14:26, 5 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Folk literature

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This Portal has long lists of potential works that would enrich Wikisource. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:37, 8 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@EncycloPetey Thanks for the highlighting this portal, even if the list is more than a little daunting. I agree that it would be great to add a few more to Wikisource, and will happily run some in the MC. TeysaKarlov (talk) 04:39, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Any specific names? — Alien333 (what I did & why I did it wrong) 05:23, 10 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Alien333 Not sure exactly who you were asking, but after some perusal, Katherine Chandler's "In the reign of Coyote: folklore from the Pacific coast" took my fancy for an isolated text, while if I were aiming to knock off some of the (intentional) duplicates on the list, i.e. those that cover multiple folklores, then either Hubert Marshall Skinner's "Readings in Folk-lore; Short Studies in the Mythology of America, Great Britain, the Norse countries, Germany, India, Syria, Egypt, and Persia" or Katharine Berry Judson's "Myths and legends of the Pacific Northwest: especially of Washington and Oregon". Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 01:56, 11 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It's not a field I'm familiar with, but it is an extensive list covering many cultures. Any listed work should be examined before being selected, since I doubt the list was vetted for ease of editing. But if even one work is picked per month (or every other month) it should add a lot of value to Wikisource. --EncycloPetey (talk) 03:30, 11 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The History of Trade Unionism

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At Index:The History of Trade Unionism - Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1920).djvu. The version we have in mainspace is a basically unedited dump of the text layer, so it might as well not exist. It's long (~750 pages, about 70 done by me so far) but has a mostly clean text layer so it shouldn't be too hard. Arcorann (talk) 00:24, 25 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Selected for Oct 2024; I've cleaned up the existing page structure and headers. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:27, 10 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A Child of Sorrow

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1921 novel by Zoilo Galang, said to be the first Filipino novel in English. We also don't have any works by this author. Commons file can be found here: (Commons file) Ciridae (talk) 14:23, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Index created: Index:A Child of Sorrow.pdf Ciridae (talk) 18:32, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Ciridae Thanks for creating the index; added for November. TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:47, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Naval War of 1812

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US President Theodore Roosevelt's first book that established his reputation as a historian and popular writer. The first edition of the book published as a single volume is available here: (Commons file) Ciridae (talk) 18:06, 10 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Protection or Free Trade

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I think that this book by Henry George is especially relevant now given the discourse around tariffs. I have uploaded it from HathiTrust as File:Protection or Free Trade (George, Henry George & Co., 1886).djvu prospectprospekt (talk) 23:39, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Prospectprospekt Thanks for nominating and uploading. I have created the index and added it to next month's MC. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 00:05, 31 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

2025 nominations

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1959 Annual Typhoon Report

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1959 Annual Typhoon Report by Charles E. Tilden. (index here) First freely available work of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, which is an American governmental agency. Would be a great start to help expand Wikisource’s coverage of weather-related books. IAmMrE (talk) 21:28, 22 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@IAmMrE Thanks for the nomination. Added for this month. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 05:37, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Toad of Toad Hall

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This is a play adaptation of The Wind in the Willows by A. A. Milne. I did a scan of it that is up over on Archive.org and can be transferred for use here in a week! I would love to help transcribe this. SDudley (talk) 03:28, 24 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

With it now being PDD in accordance with the servers here is Toad of Toad Hall! SDudley (talk) 00:01, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@SDudley Thanks for the enthusiastic nomination, and getting your comment in at one second past-midnight, Wikisource time. However, when I was looking at creating the index, the first few “Page:pages” of the index seem to have corresponding images of two physical pages side by side. Only once the index reaches Act 1 does it seem to have images of one physical page per “Page:page”. Are you able to fix this yourself, perhaps by cropping the images and reinserting them in the correct order? Thanks, TeysaKarlov (talk) 05:43, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi! I do not know how to fix that. When I started scanning it was doing a few pages and then I realized and swapped it over. I didn’t know it would make as big of an issue as this. SDudley (talk) 14:52, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@SDudley All good, I think it is fixed now, and added to the MC. If curious, I used the following free pdf editor [6], selecting the crop feature, and within that, duplicating each of the double pages, so that I could crop the left-half out as a separate page, and then the right-half out (having made sure, the second time around, to deselect “apply changes to all pages”). Hope that makes sense. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 21:15, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! Really happy that got fixed. And thank you for the tips. I will keep that in mind for the future as needed. I will have the chance to scan many more books soon so I will try and do the individual pages instead. SDudley (talk) 15:37, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The New Art of Memory

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The new art of memory, founded upon the principles taught by M. Gregor von Feinaigle: and applied to chronology, history, geography, languages, systematic tables, poetry, prose, and arithmetic. To which is added, some account of the principal systems of artificial memory, from the earliest period to the present time; with instances of the extraordinary powers of natural memory.

Is there a wiki template that functions like a tooltip, allowing an image to appear when hovering over specific text or a link?

I am looking for a way to implement this on page 47, so that when a user hovers over the phrase '(See Plate I. fig. 2.)', the corresponding figure automatically appears as a small pop-up image. This would help provide a visual reference without requiring the reader to navigate away from the text. Is there an existing template for this, or would it require custom coding?
82.167.158.197 17:55, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Personally, I am not aware of any such template on Wikisource. Wikipedia's hyperlink-style tooltips do allow for images to display, so I do not think it would require custom coding. I might be able to try and copy something across. However, I would recommend posting this as a question on the Scriptorium. Someone more knowledgeable at this sort of thing may be able to more effectively (and safely) port this capability across to Wikisource, assuming it is considered acceptable. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:32, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Such functionality assumes the reader is not using a touch screen device, such as a tablet. I'm not sure this can be implemented properly without costing some readers their functionality. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:36, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
On an iPad, you can preview a link without opening it by using Haptic Touch or Peek and Pop (if available). 82.167.158.197 20:05, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Memory Systems New and Old

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Ready for next month’s MC
Index:Memory Systems, New and Old (Middleton).djvu 82.167.158.197 08:53, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for creating the index, and added for February. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:36, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Done 194.6.182.13 05:43, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Reading one book often leads to another, as each book opens doors to new ideas, references other authors, or sparks curiosity about a particular topic. A footnote or mention in the text might introduce you to another intriguing read, or you may simply feel inspired to explore a related subject further.
Here’s another book, just 36 pages long.
Stoke's system of memory by William Stokes
and Index:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf by Richard Grey

82.167.158.197 00:30, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I have uploaded the first of these here: File:Stokes' System of Memory.djvu, while the latter was here File:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf, and I am assuming you have just yet to create an index. Whenever you do, I would be happy to add them to the MC. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:35, 4 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Index:Stokes' System of Memory.djvu
Best Regards 82.167.158.197 22:47, 6 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
One more to upload
  • New and Improved System of Mnemonics or Two Hours' Study in the Art of Memory by Jackson, G. (George) is a 19th-century book on mnemonic techniques and memory improvement. It provides practical methods to enhance recall and retention using structured memory systems.
82.167.158.197 08:07, 8 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, File uploaded here: File:A New and Improved System of Mnemonics (Jackson).djvu. I might hold off adding to the MC until next month, given that we have a few works on Mnemonics already. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:40, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Index:A New and Improved System of Mnemonics (Jackson).djvu Done 82.167.158.197 14:51, 12 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Completed in two days. Next steps: final proofreading and incorporation of tables/images. Done 82.167.158.197 22:24, 12 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Could you kindly upload some of the books mentioned in Chapter 3?
194.6.182.13 06:25, 21 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I have uploaded two files thus far. File:A Handbook of Phrenotypics for Teachers and Students (Beniowski).djvu and File:The Way to Improve the Memory (Fairchild).djvu. I will keep working through the rest (slowly). Happy to add either index to next month's MC, when ready. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 23:48, 22 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Index:A Handbook of Phrenotypics for Teachers and Students (Beniowski).djvu Done
Index:The Way to Improve the Memory (Fairchild).djvu 82.167.168.197 13:35, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Another three uploaded:
File:Aids to Memory (Sayer).djvu
File:Mnemotechny or Art of Memory (Miles).djvu
File:Elements of Phreno-Mnemotechny (Miles).djvu
Let's see how long this buys me. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 20:15, 26 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Practical Memory System

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Only 52 pages

Short is good, and added for February. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:36, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
How can I place numbers above letters?
See this page
Page:The practical memory system (IA practicalmemorys00lest).pdf/17 82.167.158.197 03:40, 30 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, Thanks for asking. You can use Template:Overscript to place numbers (or letters) above others. I have done so on the page in question, where I have also set the padding to zero in the template, so that conventional letter spacing is preserved. I have also used Template:Nowrap on each word with overset numbers (including trailing punctuation), as Wikisource's software no longer sees words, but instead collections of letters, which it won't by default be able to hyphenate if they would cross the end of each line. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:42, 30 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Is there an alternative template for placing numbers (or letters) one beneath the other?
See the page below
Page:The practical memory system (IA practicalmemorys00lest).pdf/19
1T4Rea6Su4Re
Best Regards 82.167.158.197 05:40, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Previously, not that I was aware of. Thus, I have created Template:Underscript. It may not be perfect, but it seems to work okay. e.g. {{nowrap|{{uds|T|1|us-padding=0.0em}}{{uds|R|4|us-padding=0.0em}}{{sc|e}}}} gives T1R4e. There is also an optional argument to adjust the bottom margin, although it should work with the default bottom margin (-0.4em) for standard line heights and font sizes. Please let me know if the template misbehaves though. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 21:21, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Works perfectly, Thanks
Assistance is needed on this page.
Page:The practical memory system (IA practicalmemorys00lest).pdf/46 82.167.158.197 21:44, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Done 82.167.158.197 01:49, 2 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]


New York Times, Oct. 24 1929 edition

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Issue of the New York Times reporting on the Wall Street crash of 1929. The actual crash is reported on, but not the other stuff in the issue, like Hoover’s plan to develop inland waterways. CitationsFreak (talk) 05:27, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Best Continental Short Stories of 1923-1924

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Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India: From Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825, (with Notes Upon Ceylon,) an Account of a Journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826, and Letters Written in India

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The Story of John Paul Jones

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Index:The Sound and the Fury (1929).pdf

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I plan to work on this after I complete Protection or Free Trade, but I'm nominating this now for other people that might be interested. prospectprospekt (talk) 00:47, 29 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Prospectprospekt Thanks for the nomination. Added for February. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:46, 30 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A History of American Literature

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Index here. I've already done several pages here, but I'm nominating it here for the interested. Norbillian (talk) 16:17, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Norbillian Thanks for the nomination. Added for February. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 21:31, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Old-New Land

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Zophiel

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Zophiel; Or, The Bride of Seven; IA. Book made by the poet Maria Gowen Brooks. Would be nice for March, as that's Women's History Month. Norbillian (talk) 02:08, 17 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Comment This is an epic poem with complex and inconsistent structure. It has both footnotes, some of them lengthy and crossing pages, as well as endnotes. It would require an experienced editor to oversee the completion. --EncycloPetey (talk) 14:45, 17 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Norbillian Adding to the March list, per conversation with Norbillian, who would like to work on the volume. File uploaded as File:Zóphiël; or, The Bride of Seven.djvu, Index will be at Index:Zóphiël; or, The Bride of Seven.djvu --EncycloPetey (talk) 21:10, 17 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A Voice from the South

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A Voice from the South; IA. By Anna Julia Cooper, key text by the "the Mother of Black Feminism" MarkLSteadman (talk) 02:24, 17 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@MarkLSteadman Thanks for the nomination. Index created and added for March. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:52, 23 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Life and Writings of Alexandre Dumas

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Can we nominate projects which have already been proofread and now need validating? If so I have a couple of candidates. This is the first. I proofread this a couple of years ago, and I would love to see it validated. It has some footnotes and a couple of tables scattered around but otherwise isn't particularly difficult to proofread. Qq1122qq (talk) 17:49, 18 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Qq1122qq, Feel free to nominate works that just need validating. If it is only one or two works, also feel free to directly add them to the nominations for validation section above, so that they can be added to next month's MC. No guarantees they will be validated of course, but hopefully it increases the likelihood of more works being validated in general. Regards, TeysaKarlov (talk) 19:47, 18 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Methods of Operating the Comptometer

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.. and this is the second. This is a short work explaining how to operate the Comptometer, an early mechnical calculator. Again, it's completely proofread and needs verifying. Some pages have a little light mathematics, but nothing too scary. Qq1122qq (talk) 17:49, 18 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Staging for future months

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This is the staging area for the next challenge. Works are added to this list based on nominations, current long-term series or filling in missing topics. This list is not "official", it's just designed to make it easier to set up the data table for the next challenge more easily. Nominate works above. Remove works from this list if the nomination fails.

Long-Term Series

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This space is reserved for nominations of a long-term series consisting of multiple volumes of an author's work usually referred to with titles such as "The Complete Works of X" or an encyclopedic work. Such nominations require serious consideration because they will require many years of work. Therefore, the edition proposed should be a definitive edition that does not constitute mere reprints and would make a substantial contribution to Wikisource.

Current Long-Term Series

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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (current: Index:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 11).djvu): 17.9% complete
January 6 interviews (current: Index:CTRL0000034612 - Deposition of Kenneth Klukowski, (Dec. 15, 2021).pdf): 4.4% complete
Japan and China, Their History, Arts, and Literature (current: Index:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu): 75% complete
The Works of H. G. Wells (Atlantic Edition) (current: Index:The Works of H G Wells Volume 11.pdf): 32.1% complete
Works of Jules Verne (current: Index:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 3.djvu): 40% complete
Ancient Classics for English Readers (current: Index:Horace (IA horacetheo00martrich).pdf): 71.4% complete
Andrew Lang's Fairy Books (current: Index:The Orange Fairy Book.djvu): 75% complete
The Collected Edition of Fyodor Dostoevsky (current: Index:Dostoyevsky - The Eternal Husband and Other Stories, Collected Edition, 1917.djvu): 14.3% complete
Titles in the Oz series by Ruth Plumly Thompson (current: Index:Ozma of Oz.djvu): 5.3% complete
Early Western Travels (next: Index:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu): 3.2% complete

Completed Long-Term Series

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Queued Long-Term Series

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The Works of Thomas Carlyle (next: Index:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 05.djvu): 16.7% complete
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (next: File:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 2 (1896).djvu): 14.3% complete
The Works of Voltaire (next: Index:Works of Voltaire Volume 01.djvu): 0% complete
A Complete Course in Dressmaking (next: Index:A complete course in dressmaking, (Vol. 7, Coats) (IA completecoursein07cono).pdf): 58.3% complete
The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (next: Index:Chaucer - Complete works (Skeat Volume 1).djvu): 0% complete
The World's Famous Orations (next: Index:The World's Famous Orations Volume 3.pdf): 30% complete
The Works of John Ruskin (next: Index:The works of John Ruskin (IA worksofjohnruski01rusk).pdf): 0% complete
The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy (next: Index:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 09.djvu): 3.6% complete
The History of Rome (next: Index:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu): 0% complete
Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (next: Index:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 1 (1791).djvu): 0% complete
The Cambridge Modern History (next: Index:Cambridge Modern History Volume 1.djvu): 0% complete
The Cambridge History of English Literature (next: File:The Cambridge history of English literature (IA cambridgehistory01wardrich).pdf): 0% complete
The Cambridge History of American Literature (next: Index:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v1.djvu): 0% complete
Foreign Classics for English Readers (next: Index:Dante (Oliphant).djvu): 5.6% complete
The Mahabharata (current: Index:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu): 0% complete
The Works of John Locke (1823) (next: Index:The Works of John Locke - 1823 - vol 01.djvu): 0% complete
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