Free Audiobooks


M

maisy

Ski & Blade
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.

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/

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
 
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D

david1951

New member
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.
 
H

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.
 
B

BillClinton

Former First Lounger
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.
 
H

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
 
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david1951

New member
honeybee1236 said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
H

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.
 
D

david1951

New member
honeybee1236 said:
I'm gonna buy two of the CD's from CDEL link.
Click to expand...
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).
 
R

robert

Moderator
Moderator
Say David,

I love low-keyed (ones I can understand) Brit accents for audio, especially, as you say, for Brit oriented books. Did you listen to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? I liked both the book and narration.
 
D

david1951

New member
Yes, when I say "British" accents, I don't mean north of England, Scots, Welsh or rustic Devonshire (except where appropriate for characters). I guess I mean "standard English", if not quite the plummy accents which BBC announcers used to have when I was a child.

I've just started listening to Jonathan Strange, and the narration so far is excellent.

Sorry, this is probably off-topic!
 
I

ipodinsane

New member
The Library

Im surprised that more people dont take advantage of their public library systems. I live in the Seattle area and our library lets you browse the catalogue and order cd-audiobooks from over the internet and the delivers them to our local branch.

I then follow the well put together guides on this forum to convert them to m4b files and its great--I usually encode at th 64kbps stereo level and they sound terrific and you cant beat the price.....

Check your library out, you might be as surprised as I was as to how many great titles they have.
 
I

irregularjoe

New member
Re: Re: The Library

david1951 said:
The ugly question is: "Is this legal?".
Click to expand...
To borrow an audio book from the library?
I thought that was the purpose.
If you want to rip it to your hard drive while you are borrowing it, what's the harm done?.........Not any different than dubbing an audio tape to a blank one.
 
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