Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free • Hacker News Board

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#31

Post by Glosster » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:08 AM UTC

How do we know they're great? There's no review section like on Audible or Librivox.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#32

Post by eXpl0it3r » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:13 AM UTC

What do you use to listen to audio books files? Some normal audio player is rather cumbersome, due to missing progress tracking.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#33

Post by JonathanFly » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

If anyone is looking for some free modern genre fiction, I can highly recommend the Worm audiobook: 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/

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#34

Post by tomerbd » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

I prefer TTS machine generated voice than non professional readers such as librivox, so for me it's either a professional reader or TTS.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#35

Post by AllegedAlec » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:21 AM UTC

First link I click on is a dud (Asimov, Isaac - "The Last Question" ) due to copyright claims. Not a great start tbh.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#36

Post by Libbum » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #32

What do you use to listen to audio books files? Some normal audio player is rather cumbersome, due to missing progress tracking.

For android I use "Listen Audiobook Player". Automatic progress tracking for multiple books, and generally all round great for daily audiobook usage.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#37

Post by me_me_me » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 10:31 AM UTC

reallydontask wrote: post #30

Was 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

As oppose to having some books free but riddled with vpn and pill commercial very 10 mins?

They need to make money somehow.

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#38

Post by dreen » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 11:32 AM UTC

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #32

What do you use to listen to audio books files? Some normal audio player is rather cumbersome, due to missing progress tracking.

on desktop, vlc

on mobile, vlc

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#39

Post by reallydontask » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 12:31 PM UTC

me_me_me wrote: post #37

reallydontask wrote: post #30

Was 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

As oppose to having some books free but riddled with vpn and pill commercial very 10 mins? They need to make money somehow.

Amazon "sells" classics for free, I thought there was something similar in Audible that I was not aware of

Re: Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free

#40

Post by walterkrankheit » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 12:32 PM UTC

Does 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.