With the development of the times and the advancement of science and technology, people’s reading contents are becoming abundant and diversified, from reading paper books to reading e-books, and then to today’s “listening to books” which is referred to as reading with sound. It makes reading more possible and elastic by replacing eyes with ears, which has been accepted by more and more people and has become a new growth point in reading.
Obviously, audiobooks, i.e. listening to books, create many benefits for people’s lives. First of all, it protects readers’ eyes. People no longer need to lower their heads and focus on characters for a long time to read and digest the book contents. Their eye sights can focus on other healthier subjects. Second, it protects the environment because there is no need for paper which requires thousands of trees to make. Third, the soundtrack and recitation of the books are extreme enjoyment to relax. Therefore, how to access to and download audiobooks for free? Here are 10 amazing sites.
- YouTube
Before today, you may know YouTube as a popular video streaming and sharing platform with plenty of resources on it. But now, you can explore one more function of YouTube – searching for audiobooks. You can directly type the name of the audiobook followed by the word “audiobook” to search for the audiobook. Another way to find the audiobook is to try the audiobooks-on-youtube section of Reddit which indicating the actual YouTube audiobook videos.
However, YouTube doesn’t allow users to download videos as many as they want for free. The problem shooter you can look for is VideoHunter which helps you download YouTube videos reliably and professionally. Just one copy and paste process which you will easily handle and grasp.
- LibriVox
LibriVox is an open source for audiobooks. It works as a non-profit organization which invites volunteers to read the books and release the recorded audiobooks to anyone to listen for free. If you are interested, you can try being a volunteer of it, which will be pretty meaningful. If you just want to enjoy the audiobooks, you can browse by author, book title, genre, or language of the book.
- Lit2Go
Lit2Go is another amazing site to stream and download audiobooks for free with a great deal of choices. You can open it in MP3 format or download it in a PDF file which will useful for teachers to prepare as a reading material in class. Also, for each book, Lit2Go has a detailed introduction including abstract, year published, country of origin, genre, and word count, etc.
- Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a big library of free audiobooks and poetries which provides you detail illustration of the books including added date, publication date, year, and identifier, etc. Also, you will have different download options with different formats. The most interesting feature of this site is that you can post a review of a book that you have read, which allows you to share your opinions and thoughts.
- Loyal Books
With a simple user interface, you can easily find and filter audiobooks on Loyal Books site. You can choose “Top 100” or “Mystery” to browse. What’s more, you can stream with smaller categories like religion, poetry, or short stories, etc. Loyal Books also designs an abstract part for the book to let readers preview the content of the book. After reading, you can add a review of the book which is similar to what you can do on Internet Archive.
- Storynory
On Storynory, you can find more audiobooks for kids. However, it still categorizes the audiobooks by several categories which are original, fairytales, classic authors, myths & world, educational, and poem & music. Furthermore, Storynory matches its audiobooks with a cute photo and a short description to make the stories vivid.
- Open Culture
Open Culture has an interesting name as it does bring different cultures to people by offering thousands of audiobooks of fictions and literatures. The alphabetical menu of audiobooks lists many options for readers who can directly click on one to start reading. In addition to audiobooks, you can access courses, movies, other recordings, and textbooks, etc.
- Light Up Your Brains
Light Up Your Brains offers audiobooks just for children. Additionally, as its name indicated, Light Up Your Brains provides different coloring and brain-teaser games which practice children’s imagination ability and creative skills.
- Scribl
If you would like to check for recent audiobook updates, you can choose Scribl. Also, if you prefer reading by the author, Scribl is an ideal place for you. There are many ways for you to filter and select one audiobook on Scribl. For example, you can search for book length, story elements such as styles and themes and main character, and knowledge elements like citations, writing style, and reading intents. Therefore, under each book page, you will find the corresponding content describing these elements and a short synopsis.
- Spotify
Surprise! The audiobook services have been added to Spotify, providing the audiobook lists of The Great Gatsby, 1984, and Pride and Prejudice. Listening is free on Spotify; however, if you don’t want the advertisements on it, you will need a step further which is paying for premium.
Audiobooks have been a new trend of today’s world. While listening to comfortable reading, you can improve your knowledge, which is the most important aspect of audiobook. Audiobook has helped realize many people’s dream, enjoying while learning. Now, put your paper book down, raise your head, and choose one audiobook to listen!