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Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free
- fabriceg 7y agoThis is great! thank you
- KloudTrader 7y agoIf your favourite book isn't available as an audiobook, give us a try: https://auditus.cc https://auditus.cc
- somid3 7y agoVery nice quality — though it still sounds robotic a tad. There is no “breathing” breaks. Nice work though!
- KloudTrader 7y agoDon't worry it's coming soon :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22029803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22029803
- Dramatize 7y agoWe're working on releasing an API for Replica - we'll eventually be able to provide even more realistic voices you could use. https://replicastudios.com https://replicastudios.com Auditus looks like a great idea.
- achow 7y agoDoes this use Google Text to Speech service? That uses Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), which can achieve realistic pauses gaps in speech. https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/docs/ssml https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech/docs/ssml
- Dramatize 7y agoSounds more like Polly :)
- nickpinkston 7y agoVoice quality and price seems good enough for me to use a lot - as most books / media I want to read are too niche for Audible, etc. I tried to order, but it errored out because of some file not readable error, but error was fatal and with no recourse but doing everything again. I would use this all the time if it was a little smoother. Hit me up if I can be helpful. (see my profile here for email)
- KloudTrader 7y agoWill do, thanks for letting us know about the error.
- nickpinkston 7y agoUpdate: these guys were great. They quickly reached out to me with the fixed file and the output is really good. This is the first voice synthed audiobook that I can actually stand to listen to at length, and it plays well using Podcast Addict on Android, and the voice speeds up well too (encoded at 93%, listened to it at ~1.7x)
- martinpw 7y agoFYI - the "Explore Voices" link gives a 404.
- KloudTrader 7y agoThanks for letting us know about the issue, we are working in a fix. For now, use the voice explorer on the homepage: https://auditus.cc https://auditus.cc
- fmela 7y agoSee also https://librivox.org https://librivox.org for free public domain audiobooks.
- umvi 7y agoI've been listening to Jane Eyre through librivox while I do the dishes. Excellent service, excellent voice actresses.
- pmoriarty 7y agoAnother Librivox treasure is David Clarke's reading of The Count of Monte Cristo: https://librivox.org/the-count-of-monte-cristo-version-3-by-alexandre-dumas/ https://librivox.org/the-count-of-monte-cristo-version-3-by-...
- trashE 7y agoTreasure Island v2 read by Adrian praetzellis is ... Also a treasure
- inanutshellus 7y agoAh, Adrian Praetzellis! Such a fantastic reader. I also suggest his readings of... The Wind in the Willows: https://librivox.org/the-wind-in-the-willows-by-kenneth-grahame-solo/ https://librivox.org/the-wind-in-the-willows-by-kenneth-grah... The Thirty-Nine Steps: https://librivox.org/the-thirty-nine-steps-by-john-buchan/ https://librivox.org/the-thirty-nine-steps-by-john-buchan/
- barry-cotter 7y agohttps://librivox.org/anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy-2/ https://librivox.org/anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy-2/ Anna Karenina, as read by MaryAnn, English https://librivox.org/anna-karenina-deutsch-by-leo-tolstoy/ https://librivox.org/anna-karenina-deutsch-by-leo-tolstoy/ As read by Eva K., German
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
- mraudiobook_com 7y agoSee also https://AudioBookReviews.com https://AudioBookReviews.com for free audiobooks.
- gsail11 7y agoAlso, most public libraries have extensive audiobook and ebook archives, and there are apps that bring all that content straight to your phone. If you live somewhere that has library access, you can greatly and easily expand your access to books, new and old through that method.
- PostPost 7y agoEven if you don't live somewhere that has library access, there's a number of options available. Here's a few options: https://weightywords.net/best-non-resident-library-cards-for-overdrive-access/ https://weightywords.net/best-non-resident-library-cards-for... https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries#Widely_Accessible_Libraries_and_Subscription_Services https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries#Wid... If you're in the US some cities will give access to their library system as long as you live in the state. Overdrive has a good UI, and with waitlists, I always have something to read.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jfengel 7y agoI listened to hundreds of audiobooks by borrowing boxes of CDs. Now, many libraries have accounts with Overdrive and similar services that make audiobooks available for free (as well as e-books and similar resources). I feel kinda bad that I haven't been inside my local branch in a very long time. I love libraries and are very grateful for how much material they have lent me over the years. I am glad that they continue to provide those services for people, and hope that the shift to digital resources doesn't result in closing branches. They're still needed.
- fma 7y agoI have a 3.5 year old. Prior to that I have not step into a public library for a very long time. I will admit at least the ones in Gwinnett County (Atlanta) they have kept up and I've gone there several times. Just last week on a Saturday, I took my daughter to Numbers Camp and it was a librarian teaching patterns. There were activities on patterns (stamps, bracelets to make patterns), and books about patterns. The room was full of families.
- cryptozeus 7y agoWhy is this sorted by author name ? Site is very spammy and unusable
- emmelaich 7y agoAnd the the domain keywordblocks.com is directed to media.net which is blocked by Ublock origin. Not encouraging!
- cyxxon 7y agoAlso all "free on Audible.com" links simply go to their own page telling the reader to sign up for a free trial with a referral link, instead of audiobooks that are free on Audible. Uhm, so it is NOT free on Audible, and that seems fishy and scammy as well. I understand making money in general (Audible) and referral links (this site), but just tell me, don't skirt around it please and pretend something is free when it isn't.
- SamBam 7y ago...why shouldn't it be sorted by author name?
- zerop 7y agoDo these free audio books collection also has transcripts? I want to use them to train my Speech to text model.
- jszymborski 7y agoThe books that are read are typically available in their original textual form at places like Project Gutenberg which curate texts in the public domain. As for timestamps, I'm not aware of anything other than the chapter markers.
- wiml 7y agoIf you don't already know about it, you'll probably be interested in Mozilla's Common Voice data: https://voice.mozilla.org/en/datasets https://voice.mozilla.org/en/datasets
- sams99 7y agoIs there an app on iOS that indexes ubuweb, I noticed Junky read by Burroughs there which would be a fascinating listen, but it comes in lots of pieces and consuming it on the run seems somewhat tricky
- rasengan0 7y agoWelcome to the internet 2020 http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/isaac-asimovs-favorite-story-the-last-question-read-by-isaac-asimov.html http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/isaac-asimovs-favorite-st... version 1 "debug_error": { "errorCode": "auth", "errorDetail": "0", "errorMessage": "Video unavailable", "lh": "This video contains content from Penguin Random House, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.", "xA": "ec.150;ed.0;es.This video contains content from Penguin Random House_ who has blocked it on copyright grounds." } version 2 https://youtu.be/rjqjSP7kOO4 https://youtu.be/rjqjSP7kOO4
- zie1ony 7y agoThe only book I've checked before going to comments.
- lopis 7y agoI considered whitelisting the website on uBlock but then I noticed 25+ different blocked requests (that number usually explodes after whitelisting too). Is this really necessary?
- reallydontask 7y agoWas surprised to see the free books in Audible, turns out that this is free only if you sign up and you only get one book, which is pretty misleading
- me_me_me 7y agoAs oppose to having some books free but riddled with vpn and pill commercial very 10 mins? They need to make money somehow.
- reallydontask 7y agoAmazon "sells" classics for free, I thought there was something similar in Audible that I was not aware of
- feintruled 7y agoIf you have an Alexa they now give you access to free audiobooks to listen to for the month: https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/alexa-free-audiobook https://www.audible.co.uk/ep/alexa-free-audiobook Caveat being, audiobooks can be rather long and it might be a push to fit them into the month!
- Glosster 7y agoHow do we know they're great? There's no review section like on Audible or Librivox.
- eXpl0it3r 7y agoWhat do you use to listen to audio books files? Some normal audio player is rather cumbersome, due to missing progress tracking.
- Libbum 7y agoFor android I use "Listen Audiobook Player". Automatic progress tracking for multiple books, and generally all round great for daily audiobook usage.
- freedomben 7y agoI also use Listen Audiobook Player [1]. Loaded with well thought out features. The app also saves your progress/stats in a json file in your audiobooks directory, so you can easier move it to a new phone/tablet whenever you want. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroid.listen&hl=en_CA https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroi...
- gravitas 7y agoOn Android, we have a nice FOSS choice named "Voice", an unfortunate name collision with Google Voice making it hard to find. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ph1b.audiobook https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ph1b.audiob... https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.ph1b.audiobook/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.ph1b.audiobook/
- dreen 7y agoon desktop, vlc on mobile, vlc
- jkmcf 7y agoOn iOS, searching by title in Overcast's turns up Loyal Books' index of free written and audio books, which seems to have the RSS feeds for the LibriVox audio books. http://www.loyalbooks.com http://www.loyalbooks.com
- neves 7y agoI really like Smart Audio Book Player. It is freemium. I think I don't need any the premium features, but I liked so much the usability of the app that I paid for it.
- JonathanFly 7y agoIf anyone is looking for some free modern genre fiction, I can highly recommend the Worm audiobook: http://audioworm.rein-online.org/ http://audioworm.rein-online.org/ It's longer than the entire Games of Thrones series, plenty of content there. It is a fan created recording and the early parts are a bit rough, but gets more professional over time and eventually becomes extremely polished. This is a sample (standalone, relatively spoiler free since this is 100% flashback) chapter from the sequel story Ward. Read Worm first but this specific chapter can be read by itself. http://parahumanaudio.com/podcast/gleaming-9-x/ http://parahumanaudio.com/podcast/gleaming-9-x/
- iN7h33nD 7y agoWorm really opened up a whole new section of "books" for me. Previously I thought that most web serials were on par with fan fiction in quality and subject matter. That being said another free audio book that is also a web serial (not sure if it's complete just yet) is Mother of Learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjR6qnMXU9o&list=PL1R6q3pUbd2m-QPJvDpLAERJMSteFBaCI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjR6qnMXU9o&list=PL1R6q3pUbd...
- tomerbd 7y agoI prefer TTS machine generated voice than non professional readers such as librivox, so for me it's either a professional reader or TTS.
- AllegedAlec 7y agoFirst link I click on is a dud (Asimov, Isaac - "The Last Question" ) due to copyright claims. Not a great start tbh.
- lgl 7y agoBoth "The Last Question" and "The Last Answer" are fantastic shorts that I can't recommend enough to everybody. Don't let this version being a dud stop you from reading them. They're available in text form from other websites.
- walterkrankheit 7y agoDoes anyone else have an issue with audiobooks as literature? Like, if I'm not able to control the pace at which I'm paying attention, it's problematic. I can't guarantee I'll pay 100 percent attention to noise that otherwise would almost be background to me. Regardless, the selection here is pretty bad-ass.
- mikece 7y agoIs there something inherent in literature that requires it to be visually consumed? Yes, it's too easy to let one's mind wander while listening to an audiobook but I find it helps to have a group/book club with which to discuss the book afterward. One significant negative of audiobooks is that I tend to listen while doing "active but mindless" activities (mowing the lawn, commuting, cleaning my office, doing dishes/chores) which means I'm not in a position to stop and take notes in the margin or in a notebook. To really absorb a work and make it your own I think you need to take notes and summarize the main points of each chapter, in your own words, after finishing each chapter. That said, listening-only is far better than having no exposure to these great works. Would I would love even more is to have commentaries or Joe-Rogan-Style recorded discussions about the books by academics so I could read the book, listen to discussions about the book, then read the book again with these critiques in mind.
- textfoo 7y agoGuess blind people are just kinda SOL then.
- JetSpiegel 7y agoCheck out In Our Time on BBC4, there's a podcast.
- mikece 7y agoA much shorter answer: yes, it's possible. Before getting into a serious self-study of literature I highly recommend reading and studying this book first: https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/0671212095/ https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Classic-Intelligent/dp/...
- sandreas 7y agoIf you are looking for free german audio books, checkout - https://www.vorleser.net/ https://www.vorleser.net/ For a free conversion tool, checkout - https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool - https://github.com/gonzoua/AudioBookBinder https://github.com/gonzoua/AudioBookBinder - https://github.com/yermak/AudioBookConverter https://github.com/yermak/AudioBookConverter
- drumttocs8 7y agoSo, what software/app do you guys use to consume audiobooks? I haven't found a decent one that works with external downloads.
- Hernanpm 7y agoIn android I use Voice
- impalallama 7y agoon ios LibriVox doesn't support external files but seems to list many of the free audiobooks from the link above.
- freedomben 7y agoOn Android, Listen Audiobooks [1] is my go to and has been for years. As long as your books are DRM free it's the best UX I've had. [1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroid.listen&hl=en_CA https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeandroi...
- Karuma 7y agoSmart AudioBook Player on Android works great for me.
- sosuke 7y agoI use subsonic to host the audiobooks and play:Sub/AVSub on iOS to listen to them. play:Sub can speed up the books which is very nice for some slower voice actors.
- bustadjustme 7y agoLooking at LibriVox specifically (linked to by many of the entries in OP), each audiobook has an RSS feed, so I'll just be listening to them in a podcast app. If you have a decent one that keeps track of which "episodes" you've listened to and allows downloading for offline listening (ideally automatically), seems like that should cover the audiobook usecase pretty well.
- harshreality 7y agoI think this (pre-recorded) audio book thing is a short-term phenomenon that's creating an economic distortion. Recording audio books requires extra labor, but not much (how many person-hours does it take to record War and Peace compared to person-hours spent by each publisher publishing a new edition, even assuming the use of an existing translation?). Yet Audible rakes in huge amounts of cash by charging a premium (particularly popular titles) for audiobooks over regular ebooks. Sometimes it's because they get famous people to read books, which is a blatant cash grab by the voice artist and/or by Audible. You could find 10 people who have better reading voices than any particular famous person, unless your only objective is to hear your favorite famous person read a book, any book. Also, subscription plans are designed around most people not using them fully, and not optimizing their purchases. Soon enough neural net TTS + ebooks will be nearly equivalent, and doesn't cost any more than the base ebook. Plus TTS allows synchronizing between print and speech which you can't get between ebooks and audiobooks; i.e. it would be nice to read in print, then switch to TTS while commuting or working out, then back to print.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> You could find 10 people who have better reading voices than any particular famous person, unless your only objective is to hear your favorite famous person read a book, any book. It can work. There's an Indian celebrity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bappi_Lahiri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bappi_Lahiri ) who is famous for his great love of gold. And for the Hindi dub of Moana, he was cast as the voice of Tamatoa.
- paulgb 7y agoWith a Platinum subscription, Audible books work out to $11.50 each, which is sometimes cheaper than even the e-book version let alone a physical copy. Narration quality is a big deal. I am pretty impressed with the latest TTS but if I'm going to spend 10-50+ hours listening to a single audiobook I will be happy to pay a few bucks for the best narration.
- mark_l_watson 7y agoCool site, but for myself, I will stick with Audible because of the convenience. I have probably spent about $1000 on Audible books and I feel like that has been a good value, over many years. Some advantages I have experienced: When I read James Joyce "Ulysses" several years ago, it was somewhat difficult to follow the narrative. I then listened to it as an audio book with a half a dozen good actors reading the parts and the book came to life for me. I have some arthritis in my hands, and any time not using a keyboard, holding a physical book, or an eBook reader helps. When I am working in the yard, cleaning up the kitchen, etc. it is good to listen to a book. The one thing that bothers me is the possibility of losing a large investment in Kindle and Audible books if I ever lost my Amazon account. I mitigate this somewhat by buying some eBooks and audio books on Google Play and on Apple's store. --> don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
- mrmuagi 7y agoIf I could suggest on your last point, that if you are fearful of Audible ever going the way of the dodo, that you look into OpenAudible. I've used it to keep an offline Archive of my content.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoNot sure what you’re criticizing. If you’re already spreading your eggs around to different baskets, this site just provides a few more baskets, a few more ways of obtaining audiobooks - mp3, free on Audible, etc.
- thekevan 7y agoNot what I expected to see: Iggy Pop reads Edgar Allan Poe http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/iggy-pop-reads-edgar-allan-poes-classic-horror-story-the-tell-tale-heart.html http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/iggy-pop-reads-edgar-alla...