March 9, 2018

100 Best Librivox Audiobooks from the Past 5 Years

We’ve recently gone through the last five years of audio book recordings on the free audio books site Librivox.org. The volunteer narrators there have been busy recording over 4,000 titles since we last updated them on our site back in 2014. We will be adding a number of these free audio books to our site soon. For today we’ve attempted to pick the best of the best in terms of interesting audio books with high quality recordings. Most of these are solo narrations (as opposed to the group narrations with many narrators). For the first 50 audio books we’re featuring here, they are not on our site yet so we’re linking directly to Librivox. For a few of these titles it’s the first time they’ve ever been on audio book! Enjoy these top recent Librivox recordings:

Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers by Charles Bradlaugh
Anthropology by Immanuel Kant
The Art of Kissing by Will Rossiter
The Book of Good Counsels by Sir Edwin Arnold
The Citizen’s Almanac
The Conduct of Life by Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac
The Essentials of Spirituality by Felix Adler
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin
The Fireside Chats by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fundamentals of Prosperity by Roger Babson
The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
A Guide to Stoicism by St. George Stock
Happy Homes and the Hearts that Make Them by Samuel Smiles
Henry D. Thoreau by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
History of the World War by Francis Andrew March
How to Write a Novel
How We Think by John Dewey
Indian Home Rule by Mohandas Gandhi
An Iron Will by Orison Swett Marden
The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
The Life Triumphant: Mastering the Heart and Mind by James Allen
The Logic of Hegel by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The Logic of Vegetarianism by Henry Salt
The Madman by Kahlil Gibran
Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews by Mark Twain
Mark Twain: His Life and Work by William M. Clemens
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons by Meister Eckhart
The Misanthrope by Moliere
Musings of a Chinese Mystic: Selections from the Philosophy of Chuang Tzu by Lionel Giles
My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself by Davy Crockett
The New Freedom by Woodrow Wilson
Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln
Nutcracker and Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Odysseys of Homer by Homer
On the Ends of Good and Evil by Marcus Tullius Cicero
The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society by Thomas Hobbes
Poems of Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
Political Ideals by Bertrand Russell
Poor Richard’s Almanack by Benjamin Franklin
Presidential Farewell and Last Addresses
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany by Friedrich Engels
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt
Royal Highness by Thomas Mann
The Shining Gateway by James Allen
Smoke by Ivan Turgenev
Some Problems of Philosophy by William James
The Soul or Rational Psychology by Emanuel Swedenborg
A Study in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena by James H. Leuba
Thoughts on Art and Life by Leonardo da Vinci
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud
Three Lives by Gertrude Stein
The Warren Report on the Assassination of President Kennedy
The Way to Will-Power by Henry Hazlitt
World English Bible

And for our next top 50 new free Librivox audio books, these are titles that were on Librivox already and on our site, but have had a better narration done in the past five years. Previously these books either had a group narration or a solo narration that was not very high quality. We’ve update the narrator info and RSS feed and links for these titles to point to the new Librivox recording from our site. You can also listen to them all and download them directly on LearnOutLoud at the links below:

Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Bhagavad Gita Translated by Sir Edwin Arnold
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Columbian Orator by Caleb Bingham
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Dhammapada by Buddha
Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
Laws by Plato
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

We hope you find a great new listen from the Top 100 Free Librivox Audio Books from the Past Five Years!

If you want to browse more of the best of Librivox on our site, please check out our selection of over 3,000 free Librivox audio books we feature on LearnOutLoud:

Browse Over 3,000 Free Librivox Audio Books on LearnOutLoud.com

March 1, 2018

The Best Librivox Narrators

Librivox.org continues to be the best resource for free audio books online. Since 2005, Librivox volunteers have now narrated over 14,000 public domain titles with over 8,000 readers! Their community has not only recorded almost every great work of classic literature, but they’ve dug deep into the public domain, narrating titles that might otherwise never have made it onto audio book. Because of their open copyright, their audio books have been distributed through many sites and apps (including our own). And thanks to Archive.org, the hosting of these audio books is free.

While we love any reader who volunteers their time to narrate unabridged audio books, some of the readers at Librivox stand out above the rest, both in terms of the quality of their narration and the technical quality of the recording. To further help you find the best Librivox audio books, we’ve assembled this short list of “The Best Librivox Narrators” and some of their top solo recordings. We’ve come up with this list after sampling thousands of their audio books over the years. Also most Librivox audio books are up on YouTube now, and we’ve gone through the comments of these videos to see which narrators listeners enjoy the most.

Below are our top 15 Librivox narrators in no particular order of greatness. We’ve included some of their top solo narrations below their name and we’re linking to their websites if they have provided ones on Librivox. For a number of these narrators their efforts at Librivox have lead to narrating audio books professionally for titles on Audible.com. Below we’re linking to their top titles on our site. If you’d like to see everything they’ve narrated you can search their names on Librivox.org. Enjoy free audio books from these great readers:

1. Audiobooks Narrated by Ruth Golding
Her Website: golding.wordpress.com
Top Titles She’s Narrated:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Speaking Voice by Katherine Everts
Mental Efficiency by Arnold Bennett
The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

2. Audiobooks Narrated by Bob Neufeld
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Republic by Plato
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

3. Audiobooks Narrated by Cori Samuel
Her Website: piratelibrary.com
Top Titles She’s Narrated:
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

4. Audiobooks Narrated by Chip Doc
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
American Indian Fairy Tales
War Is Kind by Stephen Crane

5. Audiobooks Narrated by Karen Savage
Her Website: www.karenrsavage.com
Top Titles She’s Narrated:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

6. Audiobooks Narrated by John Greenman (who has taken it upon himself to narrate almost all of the writings of Mark Twain)
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

7. Audiobooks Narrated by Mil Nicholson (who has taken it upon herself to narrate many of the best Charles Dickens novels)
Her Website: milnicholson.com
Top Titles She’s Narrated:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens

8. Audiobooks Narrated by David Clarke (who has taken it upon himself to narrate all the Sherlock Holmes novels and short story collections by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

9. Audiobooks Narrated by Mike Vendetti (In addition to free audio books he’s narrated for Librivox, he also sells some audio books through our site)
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

10. Audiobooks Narrated by David Barnes
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis
What I Believe by Leo Tolstoy

11. Audiobooks Narrated by Mark F. Smith
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
White Fang by Jack London
The Kama Sutra by Mallanaga Vatsyayana
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

12. Audiobooks Narrated by Elizabeth Klett
Her Website: elizabethklettaudio.com
Top Titles She’s Narrated:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

13. Audiobooks Narrated by Mark Nelson
His Website: www.markdouglasnelson.com
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

14. Audiobooks Narrated by Jothi Tharavant
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Dhammapada by Buddha
Bhagavad Gita Translated by Sir Edwin Arnold
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Translated by Charles Johnston

15. Audiobooks Narrated by Phil Chenevert
Top Titles He’s Narrated:
The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde
How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell

And there are many other fine narrators at Librivox. In addition to great solo narrations there are also over 5,000 titles narrated by a group of readers, which can be enjoyable. Also many of the most popular works of classic literature have been narrated multiple times now, so you can choose which version you like best. At LearnOutLoud we’ve tried to pick out the best version of each audio book to post to our site. From their massive catalog we’ve selected 3,000 of the best Librivox you can browse and listen to right on LearnOutLoud:

Browse Over 3,000 Free Librivox Audio Books on LearnOutLoud.com

December 4, 2017

Listen to A Christmas Carol Free, Plus 30 Free Charles Dickens Audio Books

Free Audio Book of A Christmas Carol on LearnOutLoud.com

Our free audio for the month of December is none other than A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Listen to the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge as he’s haunted by The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. This classic tale has become Charles Dickens’ immortal holiday gift to generations of readers. This audio book has a running time of 2 Hrs. 45 Min. and is available for free on MP3 and bookmarkable MPEG-4 download. It is wonderfully narrated by Antonia Bath and can be downloaded exclusively through LearnOutLoud.com from now until the end of December. You can also watch it for free through our YouTube video which we’ve embedded on the page.

Free Audio Book of A Christmas Carol on LearnOutLoud.com

Also we feature 5 other free editions of this classic tale, if you’d like some to choose from:

A Christmas Carol from LibriVox – Read by a top narrator from LibriVox named Bob Neufeld and available on MP3 download.

A Christmas Carol from Lit2Go – Read by a solo narrator for Lit2Go.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Audio Book Podcast – Professionally narrated by Patrick Horgan. We’ve been told that one of the staves might cut off, but are not sure which one.

A Christmas Carol from WOUB Digital – Well narrated by Karen Chan and a full cast. This edition is on streaming through SoundCloud.

A Christmas Carol Performed by Orson Welles’ Campbell Playhouse – One hour radio dramatization performed by Orson Welles and the Campbell Playhouse crew on December 23, 1938. Available on MP3 Download.

Plenty of editions to choose from and they’re all free! Listen to these audio books to get into the Christmas spirit!

Also if you’d like to get further into the works of Dickens, we currently feature 30 free audio books by Charles Dickens from Librivox and Lit2Go:

American Notes for General Circulation

Barnaby Rudge

The Battle of Life

Bleak House

A Child’s History of England

The Chimes

The Cricket on the Hearth

David Copperfield

Dombey and Son

Great Expectations

Hard Times

The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain

A House to Let

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit

The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby

Little Dorrit

Mudfog and Other Sketches

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Old Curiosity Shop

Oliver Twist

Our Mutual Friend

The Pickwick Papers

Pictures from Italy

The Seven Poor Travellers

Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People

The Strange Gentleman

A Tale of Two Cities Podcast

Three Ghost Stories

The Uncommercial Traveller

The Village Coquettes

The Wreck of the Golden Mary

You can check out over 200 audio books by Charles Dickens (both paid and free) on our Charles Dickens author page here:

Charles Dickens Audio Books

September 15, 2017

The Time Machine Free Audiobook & H.G. Wells Science Fiction

Travel into the future with H.G. Wells’ classic novel The Time Machine. Bear witness to Morlocks and more in the year 802,701 A.D. This audio book is available on MP3 Digital Download from Project Gutenberg. It is well narrated by Roy Trumbull who runs The Story Spieler site which features many other stories and interesting audio programs. Check out this version and two other free versions of this classic science fiction audio book:

The Time Machine (from Project Gutenberg)

The Time Machine (from LibriVox)

The Time Machine (from Lit2Go)

For all of our offering from the great author H.G. Wells, browse his author page here:

H.G. Wells Audio Books & Short Stories

Also for an introduction to the science fiction of H.G. Wells, check out this lecture from The Great Courses:

H.G. Wells and Utopian Science Fiction

This lecture is part of a course from The Great Courses called Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature taught by Professor Pamela Bedore, Ph.D.. This course and over 300 other courses can be accessed with a subscription to The Great Courses Plus.

The final decades of the 19th century saw the birth and development of science fiction as a new literary genre, with the concept of utopia in particular being a favorite subject of early writers. In this free Great Course lecture, Literature Professor Pamela Bedore focuses on two books by science fiction forefather H.G. Wells that ask the question: is imagining a utopia inherently a part of science fiction? Using both Wells’ classic The Time Machine and a lesser known work called A Modern Utopia as her texts, Professor Bedore demonstrates how science fiction can be utilized to explore how current societies might evolve if certain trends predominate, leading to interesting utopian futures that sometimes look positive on the surface, but often come with hidden costs.

For more science fiction from H.G. Wells try out The War of the Worlds:

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated his War of the Worlds radio drama. In 1938, the realistic news bulletins that began the broadcast suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Listen to this dramatization of the most famous alien-invasion story of all time. This broadcast is available on YouTube through the Newseum (interactive museum of news and journalism) channel.

The War of the Worlds (1938 Radio Broadcast)

To download the original radio drama produced by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air, check out:

The Mercury Theatre on the Air (collection on MP3 audio download)

And for a lot of Orson Welles radio programs check out this podcast:

Orson Welles: On The Air Podcast

And if you want to listen to a free audio book version of H.G. Wells’ original War of the Worlds then check out:

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (from Librivox)

The War of the Worlds Podcast

December 28, 2015

Best Librivox Readings on our YouTube Channel

YouTube de-monetized our channel because of these audio books so we took them all down. Most Librivox audio books you can already find on other YouTube channels.

In the coming months we’ll be adding dozens of the best free audio books from the site Librivox onto our LearnOutLoud.com YouTube channel.

Check Out Our YouTube Playlist of the Best Librivox Recordings

We’ve carefully picked out the best solo narrations from the best volunteer narrators who also have the highest quality recordings of the most popular audio books the site has to offer. We’ve uploaded each of these audio books unabridged as single YouTube videos. In the descriptions of the videos we’ve also added the timings of chapters so you can easily skip to the chapter you want to go to. We’ve also attempted to compress the video files as best we can so you don’t eat up too much of your data plan if you’re listening on-the-go. Right now we’ve got about 15 audio books to choose from, but we’re going to be adding many more soon! Click the playlist on the embedded video above to see what we’ve got. And please subscribe to our YouTube channel! We’re going to be adding a lot of great content there in the coming year!

Check out & subscribe to the LearnOutLoud.com YouTube channel

April 10, 2015

100 Best Audio Books of All Time

While we are celebrating our 10th anniversary here at LearnOutLoud.com, we came up with this list of the 100 best audio books of all time! This least features some of our best-selling and most highly rated audio books, including many Audie Award winners. We tried to focus specifically on titles that were great on audio, including audio original programs (titles not available in book format) and audio books that have great narration. We broke the list up by category and ranked the audio books according to their greatness within each category. Here’s the top 100 audio books of all time that we sell on audio download directly through LearnOutLoud.com! Starting with the best self development titles:

SELF DEVELOPMENT: (25 Audio Books)

1. Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

3. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

4. Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn

5. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Read by Eckhart Tolle

6. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

7. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

8. The Goals Program: Setting and Achieving Your Goals by Zig Ziglar

9. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

10. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary Chapman, Read by Gary Chapman

11. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, Read by M. Scott Peck

12. The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

13. A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

14. Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer

15. 8 Weeks to Optimum Health written and read by Andrew Weil

16. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings on Authenticity, Connection, and Courage by Brene Brown

17. The Mindful Brain by Daniel Siegel

18. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

19. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life – Lecture Series by Daniel G. Amen

20. The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes

21. Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

22. Getting Unstuck by Pema Chodron

23. Walking through the Storm: Living with Cancer Series by HumanMedia.org

24. Take Charge Of Your Mind by John Selby

25. It Works by R.H. Jarrett (for $1.00!)

BUSINESS: (15 Audio Books)

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

2. The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

4. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins

5. The 21 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Money by Brian Tracy

6. The 5 Levels of Leadership by John C. Maxwell, read by the author

7. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner, read by Stephen J. Dubner

8. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

9. Winning by Jack Welch & Suzy Welch, read by Jack Welch

10. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom written and read by Suze Orman

11. Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard, Bill Hybels, & Rick Warren

12. Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

13. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? written and read by Seth Godin

14. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton

15. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, ready by Malcolm Gladwell

LITERATURE: (20 Audio Books)

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Read by Sissy Spacek

2. The Crucible by Arthur Miller, with a full cast featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Stacy Keach

3. Hamlet: Arkangel Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

4. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Read by Michael York

6. Beloved by Toni Morrison, Read by Toni Morrison

7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

8. Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales narrated by Gillian Anderson, LeVar Burton, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Jackman, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Alan Rickman, Charlize Theron, Forest Whitaker, and other great actors

9. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

10. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, read by Donald Sutherland

11. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Read by Patrick Stewart

12. Odyssey of the West I – A Classic Education through the Great Books: Hebrews and Greeks by Professor Timothy B. Shutt

13. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, read by Jeremy Irons

14. The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection Read by Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price

15. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Read by Maya Angelou

16. Plato’s Republic with a Full Cast from Agora Publications

17. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

18. Oedipus the King by Sophocles with Full Cast

19. Poems of Rumi ready by Robert Bly & Coleman Barks

20. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, read by Jeremy Irons

RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY: (15 Audio Books)

1. The Bible: The New Testament Narrated by Gregory Peck

2. The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Howard Cutler

3. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

4. Do YOU Do It, or Does IT Do You? by Alan Watts

5. Islam, A Short History by Karen Armstrong

6. Mindful Living: A Collection of Teachings on Love, Mindfulness, and Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

7. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

8. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

9. The Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer

10. Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing by Jed McKenna

11. Desiring God by John Piper

12. Truth is a Pathless Land by Jiddu Krishnamurti

13. Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential written and read by Joel Osteen

14. Experiments in Truth by Ram Dass

15. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything written and read by Christopher Hitchens

HISTORY: (10 Audio Books)

1. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

3. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

4. Great Speeches Of The 20th Century

5. John Adams by David McCullough

6. Reagan in His Own Voice: Ronald Reagan’s Radio Addresses

7. A People’s History of the United States: Highlights from the Twentieth Century by Howard Zinn, read by Howard Zinn and Matt Damon

8. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis

9. Sir Winston Churchill: His Finest Hour

10. Don’t Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis

BIOGRAPHY: (5 Audio Books)

1. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Narrated by Selma Blair

3. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

4. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

5. Bossypants written and read by Tina Fey

SCIENCE: (5 Audio Books)

1. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Read by Bill Bryson

3. Basic Human Anatomy by John K. Young

4. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

5. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

MISCELLANEOUS: (5 Audio Books)

1. Spanish I (Comprehensive) by Dr. Paul Pimsleur

2. The Story of Classical Music by Darren Henley

3. Aristotle by Thomas C. Brickhouse, narrated by Charlton Heston

4. On Writing written and read by Stephen King

5. David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall

December 18, 2014

Best Audio Books of 2014

We’ve finished our Best of 2014 Audio Books List. At LearnOutLoud.com we’ve assembled a list of the best new and most popular audio book releases from 2014. You can check out all of our new releases here:

Popular 2014 Audiobook New Releases

All the audio books on our list are available on Audio Download. To make it easy, we’ve divided this list of the best new releases from 2014 into categories. We’ve picked a selection of audio books from our most popular categories. Here is a selection of great audio book gifts from the categories of Self Development, Business, and Religion & Spirituality:

Best Self Development Audio Books of 2014:

1. MONEY: Master the Game (Unabridged) by Anthony Robbins, and you can also get the abridged edition: MONEY: Master the Game (Abridged)

2. 10% Happier by Dan Harris

3. The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer

4. Staying Motivated by Zig Ziglar

5. You Can, You Will by Joel Osteen

6. Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington

7. Go Wild: Free Your Body and Mind from the Afflictions of Civilization by John J. Ratey

8. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

9. Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

10. Good Health, Good Life by Joyce Meyer

Best Business Audio Books of 2014:

1. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson, abridged version available: The Innovators (Abridged)

2. Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

3. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

4. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel

5. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, & Alan Eagle

Best Religion & Spirituality Audio Books of 2014:

1. The Future of God: A Practical Approach to Spirituality for Our Times by Deepak Chopra

2. Billy Graham: Candid Conversations with a Public Man by David Frost & Billy Graham

3. Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife by Eben Alexander

4. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee by Bart D. Ehrman

5. Giving Our Best: Practicing the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chodron

6. Surprised by Scripture by N.T. Wright

7. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris

8. Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong

9. Jesus: A Pilgrimage by James Martin

10. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

Best of Biographies, A&E, and Literature

Do you enjoy listening to literature or learning about the life of a renowned individual. We’ve made our selections for the Best Biographies, Art & Entertainment, and Literature on Audio Book in 2014.

Best Biographies of 2014:

1. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs

2. Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

3. Updike by Adam Begley

4. Hard Choices (Unabridged) by Hillary Rodham Clinton, also available abridged: Hard Choices (Abridged)

5. 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

Best Arts & Entertainment Audio Books of 2014:

1. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

2. Watch Me by Anjelica Huston

3. I Must Say by Martin Short

4. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes & Joe Layden

5. Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming

Best Literature Audio Books of 2014:

1. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

3. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

4. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak

5. Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood

Best of History, Politics, & Science

If you love nonfiction we’ve got some of the best history, politics, & science audio books released in the past year. Browse this selection of the Best of History, Politics, & Science Audio Books of 2014.

Best History Audio Books of 2014:

1. For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice by Howard Schultz & Rajiv Chandrasekaran

2. A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre

3. Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year by Tavis Smiley & David Ritz

4. The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

5. Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

Best Political Audio Books of 2014:

1. The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

2. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein

3. Dreamers and Deceivers: Obama and His Enemies by Glenn Beck

4. HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

5. The Way Forward by Paul Ryan

Best Science Audio Books of 2014:

1. The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku

2. Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants by Jane Goodall

3. Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney

4. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

5. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) by Christian Rudder

Download one of the best books of 2014 today!

November 16, 2014

2500 New Free Librivox Audio Books

It was quite a task, but we have just added over 2500 new free audio book downloads from Librivox.org to our site! Believe it or not the Librivox catalog has over 8000 titles now, but we feel we’ve picked out the best, bringing our total to about 3500 Librivox audio books on LearnOutLoud.com. In this post we’ll highlight the best new free audio books we’ve added. To get you started check out the Librivox publisher page:

Browse Over 3500 Free Audio Books on the Librivox Publisher Page

Now we’ll go through category by category highlighting some of the great new free audio books we’ve added!

Arts & Entertainment:

Hollywood: Its Morals and Manners by Theodore Dreiser

The Letters of a Post-Impressionist by Vincent Van Gogh

The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in America by D.W. Griffith

Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky

The Art of the Moving Picture by Vachel Lindsay

The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin

How to Appreciate Music by Gustav Kobbe

A Popular History of the Art of Music by W.S.B. Mathews

Biography:

The Education of Henry Adams

The Adventures of Buffalo Bill by William Frederick Cody

Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

Auguste Rodin by Rainer Maria Rilke

Geronimo’s Story of His Life

My Life and Work by Henry Ford

Saint Francis of Assisi: A Biography by Johannes Jorgensen

Business:

The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum

Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall

Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1 by Karl Marx

The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes

Living on Half a Dime a Day by Sarah Elizabeth Harper Monmouth

Education & Professional:

Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey

Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook by Maria Montessori

Notes on Nursing by Florence Nightingale

The Elements of Style by William Strunk

History:

On War (Volume One) and On War (Volumes Two and Three) by Carl von Clausewitz

The Journal of Lewis and Clarke

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I through VI by Edward Gibbon

History of the United States, Volume 1 – 7 by Charles Austin Beard & Mary Ritter Beard

Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1 – 5 by Francois Guizot

A Popular History of Ireland by Thomas D’Arcy McGee

The French Revolution by Hilaire Belloc

Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed

Languages:

French Self-Taught by Franz J.L. Thimm

My Very First Little German Book

An Introduction to the Greek of the New Testament by George Lovell Cary

Literature:

The Magic Skin by Honore de Balzac

Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940 by Ray Bradbury

The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Faust Part I by Johann Wolfgang Goethe

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

A Rubaiyat Miscellany by Omar Khayyam

Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill

Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott

Othello by William Shakespeare

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

The Trojan Women by Euripides

Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) by Sophocles

The Iliad of Homer, Rendered into English Blank Verse by Homer

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton

Poems: Series One and Poems: Series Two by Emily Dickinson

John Keats: Selected Poems

The Lady With the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov

Five Beloved Stories by O. Henry

Six Creepy Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Philosophy:

A Cynic Looks At Life by Ambrose Bierce

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding by John Locke

Essays: Book 1, Essays: Book 2, and Essays: Book 3 by Michel de Montaigne

Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche

The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell

The Art of Controversy (or: The Art of Being Right) by Arthur Schopenhauer

What is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain

The Analects of Confucius

The Republic by Plato

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

Of Peace of Mind by Seneca

Pragmatism by William James

The Ethics by Benedict de Spinoza

Politics:

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels

Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann

Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill

The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt

Essays on Political Economy by Frederic Bastiat

The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde

Religion & Spirituality:

The Path of Light: The Bodhi-Charyavatara of Santi-Deva by Shantideva

The Universal Religion: Bahaism – Its Rise and Social Import by Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney

The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses by Henry Drummond

The Mahabharata by Vyasa: The Epic of Ancient India Condensed into English Verse

The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther

Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray

The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer

The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-madinah and Meccah by Richard Burton

The Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith

Torah (JPSA): Genesis

Science:

Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

Opticks by Isaac Newton

Great Astronomers by Robert Ball

Anatomy of the Human Body, Part 1 – 5

Meteorology; or Weather Explained by J.G. M’Pherson

The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 – 3

Easy Lessons in Einstein by Edwin E. Slosson

Self Development:

Byways to Blessedness by James Allen

Self and Self-Management: Essays about Existing by Arnold Bennett

Your Psychic Powers and How to Develop Them by Hereward Carrington

Laugh and Live by Douglas Fairbanks

Creative Mind by Ernest Holmes

The Victorious Attitude by Orison Swett Marden

Creative Unity by Rabindranath Tagore

In Tune with the Infinite by Ralph Waldo Trine

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Thought Vibration, or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World by William Atkinson

The Speaking Voice by Katherine Everts

The Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana

Social Sciences:

Two Years and Four Months in a Lunatic Asylum by Hiram Chase

The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion by George Santayana

Woman and the New Race by Margaret Sanger

The Psychology of Alcoholism by George Barton

The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1 – 3 by Robert Burton

Psychotherapy by Hugo Munsterberg

The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets by Jane Addams

Sports & Hobbies:

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo

American Cookery by Amelia Simmons

Football Days: Memories of the Game and of the Men behind the Ball by William Hanford Edwards

The Flower Garden: A Handbook of Practical Garden Lore by Ida Dandridge Bennett

The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton

The Social History of Smoking by George L. Apperson

The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton

Dogs and All About Them by Robert Leighton

Cats: Their Points and Characteristics by W. Gordon Stables

Travel:

My Trip Abroad by Charlie Chaplin

A Traveller in War-Time by Winston Churchill

A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir

The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau

American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens

The Worst Journey in the World, Vol. 1 and The Worst Journey in the World, Vol. 2 by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Letters of Travel by Rudyard Kipling

On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham

Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope

New Free Audio Books from Great Authors

Along with the great audio books listed above that we’ve added, we’ve also added many free titles from some of the greatest authors of all time. Librivox has dived deep into the public domain treasures of great authors to provide you some never before heard audio books. Check out this list of authors below which we have added many free audio books to.

Note: These are the full author results for these authors, so if you’re looking for just the free titles you can see (Free) next to the Audio Download format in the results now for free titles.

James Allen Audio – Numerous free self help classics from the author of As a Man Thinketh.

G.K. Chesterton Audio – Plenty from this English writer, lay theologian, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist.

Wilkie Collins Audio – Many works from this English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories.

Joseph Conrad Audio – Many novels from the author of Heart of Darkness.

Philip K. Dick Audio – Some free short stories from this master of science fiction.

Charles Dickens Audio – Plenty of new free offerings!

Fyodor Dostoevsky Audio – More novels and short stories from this great Russian author.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Audio – 30 new free titles from the world’s greatest crime fiction writer.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Audio – New short stories from the The Great Gatsby author.

Thomas Hardy Audio – New free Thomas Hardy novels and short stories.

Henrik Ibsen Audio – Numerous dramatized plays from the major 19th-century Norwegian playwright.

Henry James Audio – Over 20 new free works from this great American writer.

Jack London Audio – Variety of works from the famous American author, journalist, and social activist.

Martin Luther Audio – Audio from the seminal figure of the 16th-century movement in Christianity known later as the Protestant Reformation.

George MacDonald Audio – Many free works from the Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.

William Shakespeare Audio – Basically all the plays of the Bard now free from Librivox.

George Bernard Shaw Audio – A dozen free plays from the Irish playwright.

Leo Tolstoy Audio – Over a dozen free works from this Russian giant.

Anthony Trollope Audio – Over 30 free novels!

Mark Twain Audio – Almost 30 new works to listen to!

H.G. Wells Audio – 20 new free titles from this prolific English writer best remembered for his science fiction novels.

Edith Wharton Audio – New free works from the first woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for literature.

Aristotle Audio – Over a dozen philosophical works from the great Greek philosopher.

Plato Audio – A great many dialogues and other works by the great Greek philosopher.

500 New Free Kids Audio Books

Of the 2500 free audio books we’ve added from Librivox about 500 of them are geared towards kids. Here are some great new free kids books you can grab:

Alice’s Adventures Underground by Lewis Carroll

The Blue Lagoon by H. De Vere Stacpoole

The Box-Car Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Children’s Bible by Henry Sherman

The Children’s Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum

Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbitt

Historic Adventures: Tales from American History by Rupert S. Holland

Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates

The Life of George Washington in Words of One Syllable by Josephine Pollard

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Myths That Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A School History of the Great War by Albert E. McKinley

The Story Book of Science by Jean-Henri Fabre

The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln by Wayne Whipple

Viking Tales by Jennie Hall

Zip, the Adventures of a Frisky Fox Terrier by Frances Trego Montgomery

September 24, 2014

Banned Audio Books

For this year’s banned book week, the LearnOutLoud.com team has taken a look at classics that have been frequently challenged and compiled a list of free “banned audio books” that may surprise you. For various reasons, whether it be political, moral or cultural grounds, the titles listed here have been banned by governments, and educational institutions. Some, such as Joyce’s Ulysses or Twain’s Huckleberry Finn are probably understandable in certain circumstances, but even we were amazed to see how often certain books have been censored (and why). We hope this list gives you a better appreciation of how even undisputed masterpieces can sometimes be viewed as harmful when seen in a certain light.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Call of the Wild by Jack London

Candide by Voltaire

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

And for more on D.H. Lawrence check out this new lecture series from Oxford we added:

D.H. Lawrence Lecture Series by Catherine Brown

Ulysses by James Joyce

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

September 4, 2014

15 Free Audio Books of British Literature

Over the course of literary history, it would be difficult to understate England’s overwhelming influence on the world. LearnOutLoud.com has selected 15 free audio books of the best British literature in one place, making it easier than ever to get started on some of the greatest books ever written. From William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, to Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, we’ve come up with an essential reading list designed to stimulate your inner anglophile. You’ll find free podcasts of Pride and Prejudice and Sherlock Holmes’ adventures, as well as Victorian era standouts like Charlotte and Emily Bronte and science fiction from pioneer H.G. Wells. Scroll down to starting browsing:

1. 12 Shakespeare Plays from Speak the Speech

We’ve just been informed of a great new resource for listening to Shakespeare’s plays on audio. Speak the Speech is a non-profit audio theatre company dedicated to providing freely available Shakespearean audio performances online. Collaborating with a full cast of actors in Portland, Oregon, they’ve recorded some of the best audio versions of Shakespeare’s plays available and they’ve made them available for free on MP3 download through their website. Here are the plays they’re offering:

As You Like It
Henry IV, Part One
Henry IV, Part Two
Romeo and Juliet
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
A Winter’s Tale
Sounds of Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, King John, Cymbeline, King Richard II, and The Merry Wives of Windsor

You can also subscribe to their podcast which currently features 8 of their plays:

Speak the Speech: Universal Shakespeare Broadcasting Podcast

Thanks to Speak the Speech for informing us of their great audio dramas of Shakespeare’s plays!

2. Pride and Prejudice

Download Jane Austen’s undeniable classic Pride and Prejudice. Hear the story of the courtship between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in early 19th century England. Published in 1813 this classic tale of love, reputation, and class remains one of the most beloved books of all time. This edition is well narrated by Karen Savage at LibriVox. She has a British accent and a nice flair for character narration. This unabridged novel has a running time of 10 Hrs. 25 Min. and is available on MP3 download from LibriVox.org.

3. Paradise Lost

Download an unabridged recording of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost for free on MP3 from Librivox. Listen as Milton seeks to “justify the ways of God to men” through the story of the fall of Man as the fallen angel Satan tempts Adam and Eve which leads to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. This 12-book, 9 1/2 hour audio program is narrated by group of volunteer narrators at Librivox.

And reading or listening to Milton is no walk in the park. To help guide you along with this audio book we are also featuring a free course from Yale University entitled “Milton” taught by Professor John Rogers. This course features an introduction to the poetry of Milton along with 10 lectures on Paradise Lost. It is available on streaming video through YouTube and downloadable audio & video on the Yale website.

Milton Course from Yale

4. Heart of Darkness Audiobook Podcast

Joseph Conrad’s classic novella Heart of Darkness has recently been made available for free on audio download. LoudLit.org and LiteralSystems have produced this professional sounding audio book that is narrated by Tom Franks. Listen to the highly symbolic tale of Marlow’s journey down the Congo River. This unabridged audio book is available on MP3 Download from and can also be subscribed to as a podcast.

5. Wuthering Heights

Listen to Emily Bronte’s only published novel Wuthering Heights. Emily decided to publish her novel after the success of her sister Charlotte’s novel, Jane Eyre. The novel Wuthering Heights tells the tale of the passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and how it affects the cast of characters around them. This unabridged audio book is narrated by Librivox volunteer Ruth Golding who has a lovely British accent.

6. A Study in Scarlet
The Sign of the Four
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Valley of Fear

You can now download all four of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great Sherlock Holmes novels from Gutenberg.org on MP3 audio download. They are being made freely available from AudiobooksForFree.com with professional narration from British thespian John Telfer. AudiobooksForFree.com offers many audio books for free at a low bit rate of 8 kbps which is not very listenable. But for these Sherlock Holmes audio books, AudiobooksForFree.com has donated them to be offered on Gutenberg.org at higher quality bit rates of 16 kbps and 32 kbps which are both listenable. To get the 32 kbps MP3 files click the “More Files…” link at the bottom of the list of MP3s on the page on Gutenberg.org and you’ll see links to the files at this quality.

7. Robinson Crusoe

From audiobooks.org comes this free edition of Daniel Defoe’s classic adventure tale Robinson Crusoe. The novel tells the story of an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote island. This unabridged recording seems to be from a narration conducted in the 1970s, but the narrator and audio quality still sound good. This title is available on MP3 download.

8. A Tale of Two Cities Podcast

Check out this free unabridged professional recording of A Tale of Two Cities, released by Literal Systems. Listen to this sweeping historical novel set in London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution. The audio quality is top notch and Jane Ayer’s narration is superb. This classic 14-hour audio book is available on MP3 download as a podcast from Literal Systems.

9. The Time Machine

Travel into the future with H.G. Wells’ classic novel The Time Machine. Bear witness to Morlocks and more in the year 802,701 A.D. This audio book is available on MP3 Digital Download from Project Gutenberg. It is well narrated by Roy Trumbull who runs The Story Spieler site which features many other stories and interesting audio programs.

10. Jane Eyre

You should definitely give a listen to this great novel if you never have before. In this first-person narrative you follow the title character as she matures from childhood to adulthood. Its portrayal of the development of a thinking and passionate young woman led it to sometimes be regarded as an important early feminist novel. Librivox.org offer three versions of this novel and we think we picked out the best one narrated by Elizabeth Klett, who is one of the most prolific and talented volunteer narrators at Librivox. Enjoy this novel on MP3 and now even M4B bookmarkable audiobook download.

11. Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Listen to a great love story in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Hardy himself thought it his finest novel and Tess the most deeply felt character he ever created. Hear the tragic tale as Tess is torn between the aristocratic Alec d’Urberville and her true love Angel Clare. This novel is being offered for free on audio download from Librivox and is narrated by Adrian Praetzellis.

12. Great Expectations

Download and listen to one of Charles Dickens’ greatest novels: Great Expectations! This coming-of-age Victorian novel follows a young orphan named Pip through his personal development into adulthood when he grows up to become a fine young gentleman. This novel is well read by one of the readers at Lit2Go and is available on MP3 audio download from their newly designed site.

Also NAXOS AudioBooks is also offering for free introductions to all 16 of Charles Dickens’ novels! These Dickens podcasts make up an audio book unto itself with 8 hours of introductions by David Timson including extensive excerpts from the audio books of each of these novels. NAXOS is offering these in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth and they have now recorded all 16 of Dickens’s novels in both unabridged and abridged editions.

Introductions to Charles Dickens’ Novels

13. Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse

Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is the first and only novel written by the English author Anna Sewell and it was published shortly before she passed away in 1878. The story is written in the form of an autobiographical memoir told by a horse named Black Beauty. As we follow Black Beauty throughout her life the story contains many allegorical lessons that teach us to treat both people and animals with kindness and respect. The novel is narrated by one of Librivox.org’s best volunteer narrators Cori Samuel. It is available on MP3 download from Librivox.org.

14. Macbeth

Listen to William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth on streaming audio and MP3 download. This full cast dramatization of the play is offered by Wired for Books. Hear all the drama of Macbeth’s bloody grab for power and his subsequent unraveling. The play stars Mark Mann as Macbeth and Laura Lee Parrotti as Lady Macbeth.

15. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Listen to Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Gothic horror and science fiction. Written at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, this allegorical novel reveals the dark side of modern man’s irresponsible use of technology. This free unabridged audio book is being offered by Lit2Go. Download Frankenstein on MP3 today.

And if you want to learn more about British literature check out these two great debates from Intelligence Squared on the kings and queens of English Literature:

Jane Austen vs Emily Bronte: The Queens of English Literature Debate

Two advocates and a group of gifted actors pit Wuthering Heights author Emily Bronte up against the works of Jane Austen in this streaming lecture provided by Intelligence Squared. Professor John Mullen argues that in Jane Austen’s novels, readers get formal brilliance, incredible dialogue, consistent humor, and biting social commentary that has made her work highly relatable beyond the historical period in which they were written. Writer Kate Mosse contrasts Austen’s work with Emily Bronte’s single novel, arguing that in one book, Bronte was able to transcend stories of marriage to get at the eternal, ethereal aspects of love. The debate is given up to the audience to ultimately decide who is the queen of English letters, with entertaining, funny, and interesting results.

Shakespeare vs. Milton: The Kings of English Literature Debate

William Shakespeare is pitted against John Milton to determine the king of English literature in this streaming video debate presented by Intelligence Squared. On the one side, English professor James Shapiro presents his case for Shakespeare, arguing that the bard’s complex understanding of human relations, his unparalleled range, and the multiple ways in which his work and characters can be interpreted are reason enough to crown him king. On the other side, Nigel Smith argues that with Paradise Lost alone, John Milton was able to push the biblical story of Man’s fall into new territory, taking a well-known story and imaginatively reshaping it to add layers of emotional complexity that equal anything Shakespeare was able to accomplish in his many plays. The two advocates in the debate are aided immensely by three award-winning actors that are on hand to act out scenes from Shakespeare and passages from Paradise Lost, making for an exciting discussion regardless of who ends up taking the prize.