Out of copyright books recs?

[brigdh]

I've always had a great deal of trouble falling asleep (which, interestingly, I just ran across a reference that that it might be a common trait in Seasonal Affective Disorder, though I haven't had time to look into the research). The current workaround I'm using to try and trick my body into going to sleep in a reasonable amount of time is to listen to audiobooks – specifically ones from LibriVox. LibriVox is a fantastic resource, if you've never heard of it before: free audiobooks of out of copyright works read by volunteers. They have an impressively enormous catalogue of books, but the trick is finding ones worth listening to, since I'm not actually interested in "According to Promise, or The Lord’s Method of Dealing with His Chosen People" or "Abraham Lincoln: A History, Volume 10" even for the purpose of driving myself into unconsciousness.

I've already listened to all of Jane Austen, several of Anthony Trollope, Ivanhoe, P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves (only two are out of copyright, unfortunately), Jane Eyre and Villette, Lady Audley's Secret (which is a FANTASTIC sensation novel, if you've never heard of it, and one I highly recommend), Dickens's Bleak House, and probably at least a few others I can't remember right now.

And now I need more. What books would you all recommend? It's a good bet that anything written pre-1920 probably exists on LibriVox, so feel free to rec anything you've enjoyed reading, not just a specific recording. Since it is for the purposes of sleeping, I've found that anything too grim (Heart of Darkness) or too complicated (Joyce's Ulysses) doesn't work well, but a mildly amusing and engaging tone is ideal.

Comments

[carmarthen]

I did some research into this recently, too - in my case, it's more that I am groggy until fairly late and then get a lot of energy in evening/night (sometimes I also have trouble falling asleep at a reasonable hour). Almost delayed sleep phase disorder, but I guess just delayed enough to make being a normal member of society miserable but not enough to be considered a disorder. The sleep research is really complicated stuff.

(I did try the meditation app HeadSpace for a while, and it turns out that if I use it while lying in bed it tends to put me to sleep. Less entertaining than audiobooks, though!)

[brigdh]

The sleep research is really complicated stuff.
It is! I didn't even know there were multiple types of insomnia (trouble falling asleep vs waking up too early vs waking up in the middle of the night) until yesterday! So much to learn.

[carmarthen]

Yeah, I've never really had the second two kinds, and my mom doesn't have the first - they take different strategies. And there's a lot of trial and error, sigh.

[brigdh]

Yeah, I only have the first kind too. Currently my audiobook strategy is working well, but I've used it before and sometimes it randomly stops working, so... *shrugs*