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Comment by mechatrocity | Hacker News Reader

A shout out to my favourite audiobook website, https://librivox.org . All free and open.

LibriVox is nice for some things, but almost every book I've tried to listen to from there had untrained amateurish narrators and editors with poor recording quality. I find them pretty hard to listen to compared to professionally produced books. IMO, a much better alternative if you're looking for free audiobooks is your local lending library. In the US you can often access library audiobook collections on your phone or computer with OverDrive.

Hoopla is another good one for books, music... Kanopy has a broad selection of movies too. All paid for by your tax dollars (not free!) so be sure and take advantage.

Many digital library services are paid based on usage, so increased borrowing may actually increase library costs in turn.

Not saying people shouldn’t use services — just saying it’s not a sunk cost like it might seem.

You can search by narrator & also find recommended narrators.

It's a volunteer project, so you get a mixed bag, but there are some very good voices in there as well.

Mark F. Smith has some very high quality recordings. The audio is clear in most of them, and his narration is better than many professionals.

https://librivox.org/reader/204

Around the World in Eighty Days https://librivox.org/around-the-world-in-80-days-by-jules-ve...

Treasure Island https://librivox.org/treasure-island-version-4-by-robert-lou...

The Wind in the Willows https://librivox.org/the-wind-in-the-willows-by-kenneth-grah...

I highly recommend Anna Karenina as read by MaryAnn, in English, and as read by Eva K. in German. They’re both easily professional level.

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