Some people call me weird, but I prefer listening to books rather than listening to music most of the time. I think you just love to learn and go with my brain.
If you like to listen to audio books, you may benefit from audio books.
There are 7 sources I know of free audio books.
Project Gutenberg: Probably the hub of all things public, this is always a good place to start looking. The Project Gutenberg audio page links to some of the sites below, but you can also browse our own directory of human-read and computer-generated audio books.
LibriVox: Contains human-read books from the public sector. Almost all of these classic books were written before the 1920s. From their site: LibriVox volunteers records of books in the public domain and a network of audio files. The goal is to make all public domain books available without audio books. We are a completely voluntary, open source, free content, public domain project.
Literal system: This site has no less than a selected selection, but all are still free. Also, every book seems to be in MP3 format only – which I usually prefer anyway.
AudioBooksForFree.com: This site has over a thousand free audio book titles. I think this site is a bit misleading though. Troubled by dollar signs. Books are free if downloaded in “tolerable” quality (8 Kb/sec). A better quality download will cost a little more.
In the Public Library: Yes, it’s not genius, but it’s often overlooked. local library has thousands of books on CD. My library has these links online audio books (unfortunately they only work in Windows Media for the number of days I have the book “expressed” , but to extend those days is quite simple.
Audible: Now this source is not free per se, but if you don’t have an account there, you can join a platinum member and get 3 free audio books. These are best-selling brands that you won’t find free anywhere else (except your public library). If you want them to be free, you will have 14 days to return them.
PodioBooks: Here you can sign up to receive audio book portions via RSS feeds. From the site’s FAQ: All the books you’ll find on podiobooks.com are provided by the authors to you for free. Many authors do this to publicize their work, others do it in hopes that you will buy the next work in development. Still others do it simply for the joy of writing. And while it’s not required, you have the option of donating money to an organization of your choice. When the audiobooks you’re considering run usually 50% more than their hardcover counterparts… we hope you’ll be generous. Authors receive 75% of all proceeds from audience donations. A smaller portion goes to the maintenance and expenses of podiobooks.com. Yes, there are other sources of free audio books out there. Some legal, some not so, but you have to accept this.
