Sunday, June 29, 2008

Source for free audio books!

I'm so excited! This weekend I found an online source for free audio books: LibriVox (HT to Crystal) It's a great concept: volunteers record books that are in the public domain, the files are posted to the site, and voila! Books anyone with an internet connection can listen to.

Although I love to read books from the printed page, I'm also a big fan of audio books. There are many times when I want to read, but my eyes are tired, I'm driving, or I'm doing some sort of hand work like knitting. But I'm a bit of a penny pincher. I'd much rather check a recording out from the library than buy one. Problem is, not many of the titles there interest me. (I'm not into the latest best sellers :) After browsing LibriVox's catalog, I think I'm set for life! Old books galore. My first download: Love Among the Chickens. Wodehouse, of course.

Since anyone can record for this site, the quality of readings will vary. But all the samples I've listened to so far have been, if not top-notch "Hollywood style", at least very clear and well-paced. This would be a fun project for homeschoolers to do, actually!

Check it out. From Shakespeare to Jane Austen, science fiction to poetry, you're sure to find something that interests you.

5 comments:

Mark Nenadov said...

Hi Kara,

Librivox is great..I'm continually impressed by the variety of books the community is recording! And there's certainly a lot of stuff for Wodehouse and Austen fans!

On a slightly different note, have you ever heard of LibraryThing? As a book lover, I'm sure you've come across that name. When I first checked it out, I hated it. But I've since become a huge fan of it. It's a great, social way to index your book collection. Besides the blogging/social uses, I find it very handy for my own purposes, just to see my progress on reading through my books, recall titles I've read, and what not.

Kara Dekker said...

Mark,

Yes, I have heard of LibraryThing. I tried it out a year or so ago, but didn't keep up with it. I found that it was taking too much time to search for many of my books. (since much of my library consists of out-of-print titles) The other thing that put me off was the limit of 100 (?) titles for free users...my library is at least 3 times that, and I don't have the extra cash to spend on a virtual bookshelf. ;)Maybe I'll try it again someday...

Thanks for the comment. I'm curious...how did you find my blog?

Kara A.

Mark Nenadov said...

Hey Kara,

Yeah, I had to put down $25 for a lifetime account. I think it was worth it, but again, depends on the budget.

One huge added perk is being able to sign up for Early Reviewers. To me that is easily worth the $25 in and of itself! Publishers send me free books. There's a batch every month, and I select which books I would like to receive, and once in a while they send it. There's no legal obligation to review them, but reviewing them increases the likelyhood of getting more books in the future. (they have a whole formula, partially random, that determines whether you get a particular book). Two of Douglas Wilson's books have been on there. Is Christianity Good For The World? was in a previous batch, and A Primer on Worship and Reformation is in the current month's batch.

I think I found your blog when I was doing a search for info on Debbie Maken's book. Either that or maybe it was a link from another blog. You're right.. Maken's book is shocking. And some points are bit debatable and a bit confrontational. But overall (not condoning every single point) I found it insightful and challenging in a good way. I think it would be good for more people to think on some of the things presented in there. I wish I read it earlier.

You have a good blog.. keep it up.

Mark Nenadov said...

I've added your blog to the links on my blog. I have a section ("femineum") where I have links to blogs by ladies which cover issues pertaining to feminism, femininity, etc. I'm assuming you're OK with that, if not let me know..

-Mark N

Kara Dekker said...

Mark,

Review copies on LibraryThing...hmm...that's a perk I didn't know about! Maybe I should check it out again. :)

I also found "Getting Serious..." (Maken) challenging. Definitely worth my time. I recently read a similar title by Candice Watters, and plan to review it on here soon.

You are welcome to link to my blog. Thanks for the compliment!

Kara A.