Free Audiobooks - iLounge Forums

maisy

Hi All,

Does anyone use a reliable and legal site that offers free Audio Books?

Thanks in advance,

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PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS THREAD AND DO NOT POST THE SAME LINKS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. ALL I FIND I DELETE. IF YOUR POST IS MISSING IT HAS BEEN DELETED.

I'm listing some of the other links in this thread here to make it easier as to knowing which links have been posted already so you won't have to keep posting the same ones over again. Plus this will make it easier to access the sites but you can also read this thread for useful detailed information.

audio Anarchy

Aurora-Audiobooks

"NetLibrary now available thru Atlanta Fulton County Public Library

Toldbooks

Free Stories from Thriller / Brilliance Audio podcasts

Podiobooks

Complete Podiobook (Podcast audiobook) directory

LibriVox

Project Gutenberg's Audiobooks

LiteralSystems.org

AssistiveMedia.org

Stories to Go

Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast

Audiobooks For Free

The Story Spieler

Storyline Online

LearnOutLoud Free Audio/Video Directory

Escape Pod

Many Books

Free Classic Audiobooks

Telltale Weekly

New CCEL Website

The Spoken Alexandria Project

Simply Audiobooks

Free Christian Audiobooks

NAXOS audiobook download shop.

Audiobook Store Portal

Listen-Here Free Audiobooks

Thought Audio

Audiobooks.net

honeybee1236

Originally posted by ICHIBAN

what are audiobooks??

Audio book = a commerical recording of a book that someone reads and you can listen to on your iPod or via cassette tape or CD.

Here are some links:
(http://www.audiobooksforfree.com) and

(http://www.freeclassicaudiobooks.com)

david1951

Dear Moderators: We keep on getting the same question, answered endlessly. Shouldn't this be answered in the sticky "Read this before you post"?

There are many sources of free, or VERY low-cost audiobooks. Here are a few of them:

http://www.audiobooksforfree.com
http://www.FreeClassicAudioBooks.com
http://www.telltaleweekly.com

Also, Audible.com have a variety of (generally short) free files - the 911 Hearings, for example, and recently an interview with Lemony Snicket, but there's quite a lot of other stuff. Just go to the Audible site and look down the left hand column for "Selected Free Audio".

You also generally get a couple of free books if you sign up a subscription with Audible.

honeybee1236

We get a lot of the same questions being asked over and over again because people don't always read the stickies nor the FAQ's. Most people post before they look or post without ever looking or using the 'search' feature, hence, the repetition.

ICHIBAN

Originally posted by honeybee1236

oh cheers for that mate.

BillClinton

Nothing that I've seen, except for Gutenberg, is free AND worthwhile (ya get watcha pay fer).

I subscribe to audible.com and really enjoy it - I usually only have time for one book a month, plus a periodical/radioshow (News from Lake Wobegon is one of my favorites). Give it a try. (and if you like, tell them I referred you - kbolser (I'd get a bonus book), or don't - it's a good service.

honeybee1236

I have found that the free sites offer audio books at 16kbps and it sounds horrible. I really can't listen and enjoy the books the sound is so terrible. They really need to raise the bit rate of the books.

Has anyone burned them to a disk and tried reimporting one to see if the sound quality is better?

Well, I tried it and the sound quality didn't improve much. It was a tad bit better but not nearly enough to be able to enjoy the books and one of them I can't find as an audio book anywhere. I was going to just buy the ones I wanted. Audible nor Amazon has it.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis

primaryreality

You can find a free audio version of The Imitation of Christ here:

http://www.ccel.org/k/kempis/imitation2/mp3/

The quality is pretty good, and the site has quite a few other audiobooks (mostly classic Christian texts, but includes some classic fiction) as well and is always adding new ones.

The main site address is: http://www.ccel.org

david1951

Originally posted by honeybee1236

I must have been lucky, I think that I downloaded a few books from www.audiobooksforfree.com before they changed the free level from 32 Mbps to 16 Mbps. I got two children's books by E.Nesbit at 32 Mbps, and at that rate they are very listen-able.

Still, $3 or $4 for an audiobook isn't bad!

I'm tempted to buy their version (on CD-ROM) of the whole Sherlock Holmes canon - pretty good value for $15.

honeybee1236

I don't mind paying for them especially if the quality is better. The 24k is ok but I still would like better quality and narrator. It's hard to find the classics with a higher quality bit rate. I think someone should offer them in mp3 format because I would buy them. But I haven't found anyplace that sells them. I'm gonna buy two of the CD's from CDEL link.

david1951

Originally posted by honeybee1236

I'm gonna buy two of the CD's from CDEL link.

Hmmm.... I listened to a sample of Anna Karenina from their site, and it was pretty awful.

Mind you, part of this is my dislike of American accents reading non-American books. This is completely unreasonable, I'm sure, from your point of view! But as I was born in the UK, and have lived most of my life in Australia, my brain 'tunes in' better to British accents, I think. I don't mind US accents reading books by American authors like John Grisham, since it 'fits' perfectly (of course!). But when reading classics like ####ens, I much prefer a British accent.

I suppose that means I should prefer someone with a Russian accent reading Anna Karenina!! (But I don't think so).