Resources for Free Audio Books

Imagine yourself jogging in your gym with all the rest of the exercise addicts. The people around you bob their heads to the jazz, alternative, or rock music that assaults their ears. You're different though. You don't fill your brain with the nonsensical beats of today's pop music. No, you listen to books. Audio Books.

Instead of being a chump and paying for audio books, the following is a list of resources to find audio books for free. These sites are legitimate, and the audio books are legal. Why pay for your books when you can listen to them for free? Download free audio books and save your precious money for more important things.

Most of the books that become free are a part of the public domain. Public domain refers to works of art (like music and books) that don't have a copyright anymore. That means that anyone can provide these works for free. There are many classics of the literature world that are now a part of the public domain. For instance, Jane Austen's Emma and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer are public domain and can be received for free. This is how most of the free download audio book websites work.

Librivox.org

This website lists only works that are in the public domain like explained above. This is a nonprofit website providing a free service to readers. The audio books are recorded by users and volunteers, which means that most of the voices you'll hear will be that of amateurs. Most of the books also have each chapter read by a different person. Keep this in mind when searching for books. Some of the recordings may be better than others.

Librivox.org provides a wide selection of audio books to choose from. They provide the audio books in both mp3 and ogg formats.

AudioBooksForFree.com

AudioBooksForFree.com provides audio books for free download and for a fee. The free downloads are a slower download speed and minimized audio quality. Unlike LibriVox.org, AudioBooksForFree.com lists their books by order of subject. They have anything you could want, from romance to crime mysteries. If you're in the mood to browse, this is a good website.

FreeClassicAudioBooks.com

This website sifts through all the free audio books offered on other websites and compiles a list of the best classic books. They come in either mp3 or m4b iPod formats. Downloading is easy, too. Just click the book, then the chapter, and you're there.

The downside to FreeClassicAudioBooks.com is that about half of their books are read by a computer rather than humans. The books that are read this way sound choppy and unnatural. It's hard to get over the way the computer talks, and it distracts from the contents of the books.

Obtaining legally free audio books is the best way to go. Although you probably won't find any recent bestsellers, you can still listen to some of the best books ever written. You might as well take advantage of these free services if you're interested in listening to audio books.