Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

news.ycombinator.com

31–40 of 63 posts

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#31
post #5

I made a telegram bot for my mother that downloads yt videos and extracts the audio and makes it available to her via jellyfin from my homeserver. She downloaded way over 1tb in a year. Once every few month I transfer everything to an SD kart and hand it to her. So: youtube is pretty full of audiobooks also very recent ones - and shes only searching for german ones.

I’m jealous, I wish my mum was into tech more so I could build stuff for her. But she’s a luddite :) Good for you.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#32
I download epub files and then have ElevenLabs read it to me using AI generated voices I created/cloned using its built in tool. I prefer this method because I can have a book narrated to me using any voice I want to. For example, I’m currently listening to the foundation novels but having it narrated by an AI clone of Lou Lobell’s voice since she narrates the tv show. You can also export narrations as mp3 files and listen to them however you want.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#33
BBC Radio 4 has a number of audiobooks online. Here are a couple from Agatha Christie:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007vqm2/episodes/player

My observation is that even though it's BBC "radio," the stuff on Radio 4 is more like an audio book, compared to American radio dramas which are more like "plays," as they're more acted out and can include sound effects and music. The BBC stuff is very dry, like someone reading to you.

If you want an equivalent digital news detox, see what reading services for the blind are available in your area. Where I live, one of the local NPR radio stations carries audio of someone reading today's newspaper, and it's also available online.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#35
I used to get them from Audible and my collection has more than 400 audiobooks. However, I realized that I rarely listen to a book twice so buying audiobooks wasn't the best use of my money. Then I discovered Libby and Hoopla thanks to HN. Now I borrow audiobooks from my city library.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#36
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask in the subreddit of the genre? Those are some of the more mature subs usually.

Reddit shouldn't be included in anyone's digital detox.

GP didn't state they were detoxing they asked for book recs. One or two reddit posts shouldn't send them into the doomscrolling abyss.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#37

I download epub files and then have ElevenLabs read it to me using AI generated voices I created/cloned using its built in tool. I prefer this method because I can have a book narrated to me using any voice I want to. For example, I’m currently listening to the foundation novels but having it narrated by an AI clone of Lou Lobell’s voice since she narrates the tv show. You can also export narrations as mp3 files and…

Where do you get DRM-free epub files?

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#39

I download epub files and then have ElevenLabs read it to me using AI generated voices I created/cloned using its built in tool. I prefer this method because I can have a book narrated to me using any voice I want to. For example, I’m currently listening to the foundation novels but having it narrated by an AI clone of Lou Lobell’s voice since she narrates the tv show. You can also export narrations as mp3 files and…

What is the average cost of using elevenlabs for that? they have great voices, but I would have assumed this would have been cost prohibitive.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?

#40

I download epub files and then have ElevenLabs read it to me using AI generated voices I created/cloned using its built in tool. I prefer this method because I can have a book narrated to me using any voice I want to. For example, I’m currently listening to the foundation novels but having it narrated by an AI clone of Lou Lobell’s voice since she narrates the tv show. You can also export narrations as mp3 files and…

What is the average cost of using elevenlabs for that? they have great voices, but I would have assumed this would have been cost prohibitive.

If you do it through their iOS app it's completely free.
Post reply on HN