FREE/BARGAIN — Audiobooks

[tubemonkey]

LearnOutLoud -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Apr

• FREE -- Nature -- Ralph Emerson/ Jon Reiss --> 1.3 hrs --> NF philosophy

Published in 1836, this book puts forth Emerson's philosophy of transcendentalism which he would expound upon in his future essays. This influential work would go on to inspire Henry David Thoreau and his famous work Walden. The audio book is most excellently narrated by Jon Reiss.

[skinmaan]

Amazon figured out it is a new month. In honor of our hostmonkey, I'll duplicate his format.

Amazon Whispersync -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Apr

FREE -- The Age of Innocence -- Edith Wharton/ Elizabeth Klett --> 10 hrs --> classic

Whispersync: Audible (free) | Kindle (free)

Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this 1920 novel about Old New York society. Newland Archer is wealthy, well-bred, and engaged to the beautiful May Welland. But he finds himself drawn to May's cousin Ellen Olenska, who has been living in Europe and who has returned following a scandalous separation from her husband.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

Amazon figured out it is a new month. In honor of our hostmonkey, I'll duplicate his format.

Amazon Whispersync -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Apr

FREE -- The Age of Innocence -- Edith Wharton/ Elizabeth Klett --> 10 hrs --> classic

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

I was just about to post regarding this title. Elizabeth Klett is my favorite Librivox narrator, and this is apparently a title she recorded for Librivox. I noticed that some other of her Librivox titles are being sold at Audible, and that she has posted "Buyer Beware" comments on a couple of them indicating that they are her free Librivox recordings.

I contacted her through her website to let her know about this one.

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I was just about to post regarding this title. Elizabeth Klett is my favorite Librivox narrator, and this is apparently a title she recorded for Librivox. I noticed that some other of her Librivox titles are being sold at Audible, and that she has posted "Buyer Beware" comments on a couple of them indicating that they are her free Librivox recordings.

I contacted her through her website to let her know about this one.

Point well-made and thanks for informing the reader. I did some checking and if you look at the publisher's catalog on Audible (SAGA Egmont) it seems to be made up of classics (likely from Librivox) and foreign language publications.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

This looks like a great ebook/audiobook. The Children's Bizzard. The Whisersync deal is only $6.98.

It's a heart-rending, and part of the time probably a heart-warming (well that last word was a poor choice. ha), book. Some you dyed-in-the-wool fictionistas might even like it (just pretend that the things in the book never did happen, and you'll love it!). You can't make up stories this good.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QUCO1W.

Sorry. It's Children's Blizzard, not Bizzard.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I was just about to post regarding this title. Elizabeth Klett is my favorite Librivox narrator, and this is apparently a title she recorded for Librivox. I noticed that some other of her Librivox titles are being sold at Audible, and that she has posted "Buyer Beware" comments on a couple of them indicating that they are her free Librivox recordings.

I contacted her through her website to let her know about this one.

Is there a list, ranked by popularity, of LibriVox narrators? If not, it sure would be nice to have. How about it, LibriVox? I can see a couple of possible pitfalls of this, however.

Another thing that would be nice (I think) is to have different licenses for different recordings on the Librivox website. In the case of the audiobooks that you mentioned, there would be use of a(the) license to distribute freely, but not to sell. There may be a Creative Commons license with just this sort of proviso, I dunno. I admit my ignorance here--LibriVox may not even use the Creative Commons license approach (I almost never go the LibriVox website, and actually download any item from there much less frequently than that). Or, there may not be a Creative Commons license set-up for audio recordings, only for ebooks. Again, I dunno.

Would someone enlighten me?

In case anyone is interested in viewing information about the Creative Common License, and the half a dozen or so different ones that are available, you can get it straight from the horse's mouth here, at this Creative Commons website.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Is there a list, ranked by popularity, of LibriVox narrators? If not, it sure would be nice to have. How about it, LibriVox? I can see a couple of possible pitfalls of this, however.

Another thing that would be nice (I think) is to have different licenses for different recordings on the Librivox website. In the case of the audiobooks that you mentioned, there would be use of a(the) license to distribute freely, but not to sell. There may be a Creative Commons license with just this sort of proviso, I dunno. I admit my ignorance here--LibriVox may not even use the Creative Commons license approach (I almost never go the LibriVox website, and actually download any item from there much less frequently than that). Or, there may not be a Creative Commons license set-up for audio recordings, only for ebooks. Again, I dunno.

Would someone enlighten me?

In case anyone is interested in viewing information about the Creative Common License, and the half a dozen or so different ones that are available, you can get it straight from the horse's mouth here, at this Creative Commons website.

There's a thread discussing the narration quality of LibriVox titles in the Audiobook Discussions Forum:

(Near) Professional Quality books on Librivox

[skinmaan]

I found a new Audible freebie for you lover of thrillers. For now (I've no idea how long) you can get "The Cleaner" by Mark Dawson here. Get it while the gettin' is good.

Meet John Milton. He considers himself an artisan. A craftsman. His trade is murder. Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list.

But now, after 10 years, he's had enough - there's blood on his hands and he wants out. Trouble is, this job is not one you can just walk away from. He goes on the run, seeking atonement for his sins by helping the people he meets along the way.

But his past cannot be easily forgotten, and before long it is Milton who is hunted, and not the hunter. The Cleaner. A career of state-sanctioned murder has taken its toll. Milton is troubled by nightmares, a long line of ghosts who torment his dreams. He resolves to make his next job his last and, then, perhaps, he can start to make amends for everything that he has done.

Sharon Warriner is a single mother in the East End of London, suicidal with fear that she's lost her young son to a life in the gangs. After Milton saves her life, he promises to help. But the gang, and the charismatic rapper who leads it, is not about to cooperate with him.

As London burns through summer riots, Milton finds himself in unfamiliar territory, dealing with an unfamiliar foe. And when his employer sends another agent after him, the odds against him are stacked even higher.

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

PS - Also free on Amazon UK.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

Point well-made and thanks for informing the reader. I did some checking and if you look at the publisher's catalog on Audible (SAGA Egmont) it seems to be made up of classics (likely from Librivox) and foreign language publications.

I had seen apparent Librivox recordings previously on Audible, but to the extent I thought about it, I sort of assumed that the narrators were being compensated, which seems fair enough. But now it seems clear that some fly-by-night pseudo publishers are attempting to profit off the work of other people. It may be legal, but it sure doesn't seem ethical.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I had seen apparent Librivox recordings previously on Audible, but to the extent I thought about it, I sort of assumed that the narrators were being compensated, which seems fair enough. But now it seems clear that some fly-by-night pseudo publishers are attempting to profit off the work of other people. It may be legal, but it sure doesn't seem ethical.

It might be worth pointing it out to Audible explcitly.
They may choose not to do business with them if something unethical seems to be going on.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what license Libravox uses for their performances, but if their terms amount to "None, these are PD, do whatever you want" then that "publisher" might be adding value in the form of curation, marketing or some other incidental contribution, and the narrator's "buyer beware, you can get this version for free" is pretty all one can do.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

There's a thread discussing the narration quality of LibriVox titles in the Audiobook Discussions Forum:

(Near) Professional Quality books on Librivox

Thanks for the information, especially the link. And you may have predicted (I can't imagine why. ha) that the questions and answer(s) easily could lead us to discussion that was off topic.

[GtrsRGr8]

Whispersync Deal.

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon. BIG book, so long narration.

Ebook 4.8 stars, from 761 reviews!

$6.48 right now, due to big drop in the price of the Kindle portion.

This is a piggyback off of post by GARussell. Thanks GAR.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

Amazon figured out it is a new month. In honor of our hostmonkey, I'll duplicate his format.

Amazon Whispersync -- Monthly Offer -- exp 30 Apr

FREE -- The Age of Innocence -- Edith Wharton/ Elizabeth Klett --> 10 hrs --> classic

Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

Thanks, I appreciate it - added to OP

EDIT: link to Elizabeth's LibriVox recording -- The Age of Innocence (version 2)
.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

I found a new Audible freebie for you lover of thrillers. For now (I've no idea how long) you can get "The Cleaner" by Mark Dawson here. Get it while the gettin' is good.



Enjoy!
skinmaan
Your audiobook bloodhound

PS - Also free on Amazon UK.

Thanks - added to OP and Free Audible Titles

A longer one. A refreshing change from the usual short story fare.

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 05 Apr

• £2.99 -- The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire -- Edward Gibbon --> history