Are you looking for an audiobook you can listen to on an iPod? While the secure WMA files used for our NetLibrary/Recorded Books downloadable audiobooks can’t be played on an iPod (or, for that matter, on a Macintosh or Linux-based computer), there are several websites that offer DRM-free mp3s of works in the public domain. Many of these are volunteer efforts, and so the quality may not be what you are used to in a commercial audiobook.
- LoudLit.org pairs “great literature and accompanying audio” and notes that by “putting the text and audio together, readers can learn spelling, punctuation and paragraph structure by listening and reading masterpieces of the written word.”
- Free Classic AudioBooks offers books in both mp3 and m4b formats.
- LibriVox bills itself as “acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.” It offers a growing catalog of books read by volunteers. You can even volunteer to read a chapter yourself!
- Classic Poetry Aloud offers a podcast of poetry readings.
- Podiobooks offers free serialized audio books in a variety of genres.
- Gutenberg Audio Books Project has both human and computer read audiobooks.
- FreeAudio.org has a small selection of nonfiction works.
- Assistive Media provides volunteer-read newspaper and magazine articles, including pieces from the New Yorker, Harper’s, Wired, and others.
- Audio Book Podcast Collection at openculture includes downloadable audiobooks from a variety of sources.
Have you found any other sources for free digital audiobooks? Leave a note in the comments or write to the webmaster.
