Find It @ Hesburgh Library - Leisure Reading — Literature - Library Guides at University of Notre Dame

Tips on searching for leisure reading

In the catalog
Browsing the shelves

The Library's online catalog may be used to find fun reading.

You can look up specific authors and titles in OneSearch. Then use the limiters on the left side to restrict your list to those books that might be of interest.

For example, you can limit to "On Shelf" or "Online Access." "On Shelf" will refer to physical books and "Online Access" will find eBooks to download.
You can also click on "Books" under "Resource Type."
You can also limit by "Author/Creator" to remove books that may be about your author rather than written by your author.
You can limit by language and also by call number. "P--Language and Literature" is one of the main call numbers where you can find leisure reading material.

Other ways to search the catalog are to use subjects based on favorite genres, or category of literature.

See this Wikipedia link for an extensive list of literary genres (categories). Use the genre name “+fiction” or “+stories” to search for titles in the catalog. The limiters on the left of the catalog search screen can help to narrow your search.

Leisure reading can be found throughout the Hesburgh Library by browsing. Here are some tips to find it.

Browse the 4th, 5th, and 8th floors of the library within these Library of Congress call numbers for literature to find novels, poetry, short stories, plays, etc.:

PJ Oriental Languages and Literature
PK Indo-Iranian Languages and Literature
PL Languages and Literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, and Oceania
PR English Literature
PS American Literature
PT German and Scandinavian Literature
PZ Fiction and Juvenile Belles Lettres

For non-fiction leisure reading, study the Library of Congress classifications and use them to browse the catalog or the library shelves for your favorite subject.

Can’t find what you are looking for? Chat with a librarian!