Where to find free audiobooks?
June 5, 2007 12:41 PM Subscribe
Please recommend some good sources for downloading free/cheap audiobooks.
Personally I don't think Audible is very cheap. (For new books they want as much as a hardcover copy!)
I'm interested in anyone who might have a good source, too, but I haven't found much and I've looked a bit. Best resource I found was the local library's collection of Books-on-CD. (Of course, don't keep the files around after you've returned the CD...that would be illegal.)
The Gutenberg Project has a page devoted to free audiobooks, that you should check out. I haven't tried any of them, though, so I can't speak for the quality.
They link to these guys:
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/
Looks a little low-budget, but they say no computerized text-to-speech! They seem to let you download for free, and offer other options (MP3s on CD, etc.) for cost. Probably worth supporting or otherwise donating if you use them, since that bandwidth bill must be bad.
On preview -- amf and jaimev beat me to it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:05 PM on June 5, 2007
I'm interested in anyone who might have a good source, too, but I haven't found much and I've looked a bit. Best resource I found was the local library's collection of Books-on-CD. (Of course, don't keep the files around after you've returned the CD...that would be illegal.)
The Gutenberg Project has a page devoted to free audiobooks, that you should check out. I haven't tried any of them, though, so I can't speak for the quality.
They link to these guys:
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/
Looks a little low-budget, but they say no computerized text-to-speech! They seem to let you download for free, and offer other options (MP3s on CD, etc.) for cost. Probably worth supporting or otherwise donating if you use them, since that bandwidth bill must be bad.
On preview -- amf and jaimev beat me to it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:05 PM on June 5, 2007
These folks have a few good things for free - if you like, you can subscribe:
http://www.thoughtaudio.com
And there is also LibriVox:
http://www.librivox.org
which is sort of the open-source audiobook -
Only books in the public domain, read by volunteers, recordings themselves are also public domain.
LibriVox usually has one volunteer do a few chapters and another do the next few. Which can be a bonus when done well (an example from memory is White Fang - the mix of male, female, Canadian voices, etc. worked so well with the story I'd think it was done purposefully) and a grace when you get to a voice you don't like - it will only be a few chapters before you're hearing another voice).
posted by bartleby at 1:40 PM on June 5, 2007
http://www.thoughtaudio.com
And there is also LibriVox:
http://www.librivox.org
which is sort of the open-source audiobook -
Only books in the public domain, read by volunteers, recordings themselves are also public domain.
LibriVox usually has one volunteer do a few chapters and another do the next few. Which can be a bonus when done well (an example from memory is White Fang - the mix of male, female, Canadian voices, etc. worked so well with the story I'd think it was done purposefully) and a grace when you get to a voice you don't like - it will only be a few chapters before you're hearing another voice).
posted by bartleby at 1:40 PM on June 5, 2007
Podiobooks has free e-books in podcast form. You can use something like DownThemAll (firefox extension) to download all the podcasts at once (or maybe there's an easier way to do it, I dunno).
posted by !Jim at 1:47 PM on June 5, 2007
posted by !Jim at 1:47 PM on June 5, 2007
I second jaimev's suggestion of your local library. I have had great success with my library.
posted by JJ86 at 2:07 PM on June 5, 2007
posted by JJ86 at 2:07 PM on June 5, 2007
Seconding podiobooks.com. It's all absolutely free (although you are encouraged to donate). Lots of good sci-fi in there.
posted by JDHarper at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2007
posted by JDHarper at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2007
Hey that podiobooks is pretty cool. Just subscribed to Black Jack Justice and it's teh awesome.
posted by juv3nal at 11:13 AM on June 6, 2007
posted by juv3nal at 11:13 AM on June 6, 2007
Thanks to OmieWise, I've been listening to readings from Disciplined Minds from the Unwelcome Guests archive (starts on episode 176). Only one book, but pretty interesting.
posted by Chuckles at 6:50 PM on June 6, 2007
posted by Chuckles at 6:50 PM on June 6, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by unformatt at 12:56 PM on June 5, 2007