Freebies: Librivox: Books that talk

Too lazy to read?

Try audiobooks. Just like what the name suggests, these are BOOKS in AUDIO format. With this, you can hit the gym, sweat it out on the treadmill and work your body, while feeding your mind as you read on the evolving story of Jane and Mr. Bingley in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” with the aid of your iPod. You’ll be hitting two birds in one stone. Ingenious, right?

But do you what’s even better?

You can get audiobooks FOR FREE.

Check Librivox.org. :)

Librivox is a non-commerical, non-profit and ad-free project. It’s goal is simple: to make all public domain books available as free audio books. When we say public domain books, we mean those books not covered by copyright laws. (So, rest easy. Everything’s legal.) The moving force of this impressive endeavor are the readers. Although they hail from different parts of the globe, they are united by this good cause -- offering their voices to record chapters (or entire books!) and then releasing the audio files back onto the Internet. Cool, isn’t it?

Now if you’re going to download audiobooks from Librivox for free, how about you join the bandwagon as well? Be part of the project. You won’t need any prior experience, nor do you need to audition in order to land a spot as a reader. “All you need is your voice, some free software, your computer, and maybe an inexpensive microphone.” It will be worth your while. I guarantee it. I’m one of them, afterall.

(FYI: You can also be an editor or a listener.)