March 13, 2024

20 Best Arts & Entertainment Audio Books from the Past 5 Years

We’ve recently added thousands of new audio books from the past five years to our Audio Book Downloads section on LearnOutLoud.com. As always we’ve focused on audio books you can learn from, including most nonfiction audio books along with classic and contemporary literature. This brings the total number of titles in our Audio Book Downloads section to over 70,000! Please note that we are linking to Audible on Amazon.com for almost all of our audio book downloads. You can browse them all here:

Browse Over 70,000 Audio Book Downloads from LearnOutLoud.com

In this blog post, we’ll highlight 20 of the best audio books from the past five years in our categories of Arts & Entertainment Audio Books. You can now browse:

Over 3,500 Arts & Entertainment Audio Books on Download

Sort by Release Date for the titles we’ve most recently added. Below, we’ll highlight 20 of the best new audio books from the world of arts & entertainment. Enjoy this list and hopefully you’ll find some audio book that sparks your interest to learn more!

20 Best Arts & Entertainment Audio Books from the Past 5 Years

Best Comedy Audio Books:

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk
Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford
How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety by Zachary Auburn
The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improv Manual
Mastering Stand-Up by Stephen Rosenfield

Best Film, Music, Radio, TV, & Pop Culture Audio Books:

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton
The Office: An Oral History by Andy Greene
Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino
Room to Dream by David Lynch
From Staircase to Stage by Raekwon

Best Painting, Architecture, & Sculpture Audio Books:

Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King
All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley
What Are You Looking At? by Will Gompertz
The Last Leonardo by Ben Lewis
Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved by Steven Naifeh
Talk Art by Russell Tovey

Best Theater, Opera, & Classical Music Audio Books:

Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner
Mozart: The Reign of Love by Jan Swafford
Classical Music for Dummies by David Pogue
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross
In the Heights: Finding Home by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Plenty of entertaining and edifying audio books to choose from!

May 1, 2021

1,000 Best Free Audio Books on Spotify

We’ve just added over 500 new audio books from Spotify into our Free Audio & Video Directory. That brings our total number of Spotify audio books to over 1,000. We’ve created a Spotify playlist on our LearnOutLoud Spotify account that you can use to find these audio books. The playlist features the first track of each audio book. Check out this playlist on Spotify:

Best Free Audio Books on Spotify Playlist by LearnOutLoud

In addition to music and podcasts, Spotify has increasingly become a destination for audiobooks. In order to listen to these audiobooks you’ll need a free Spotify account. You can listen for free with occasional ads, and they also have Spotify apps for easier listening on your computer or smart phone. If you want to listen ad-free and you love music as well, we can’t recommend Spotify Premium highly enough.

One of the issues with Spotify and audio books is finding the best audio books they have to offer. We’ve scoured through Spotify to find the highest quality audio books you can learn from and below we’ll list the publishers that have added many of their titles to Spotify. Browse through these publishers on our site and find some great audio books to listen to on Spotify today!

Note: It’s come to our attention that free users of Spotify can no longer play albums or playlists in order on mobile. Spotify mobile apps force free users to play in shuffle mode. Pretty annoying for audiobooks! If you’re not a Spotify Premium user and you want to play these audiobooks in order, you’ll need to play them on your desktop or tablet. Sorry!

Spotify Podcasts & Audio Books – For titles that didn’t fit under another publisher, we’ve added them to our Spotify publisher page. Here you’ll find some classic literature audio books that Spotify has published with professional narrators, along with some podcasts that are exclusive to Spotify. There are also spoken word albums of speeches, poetry readings, comedy, and a lot more.

Made for Success Audio Books – We feature over 250 audio programs from Made for Success which are available on Spotify and YouTube. They specialize in original audio programs to motivate you in your personal and professional life.

L.A. Theatre Works Audio Books – The best publisher of audio theatre has added over 80 of their plays to Spotify. You’ll find classic plays such as Twelve Angry Men and much more.

Penton Overseas Language Learning Audio Books – This publisher has added over 50 of their “Learn in Your Car” language learning audio programs to Spotify. Learn French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, German, English as a Second Language, and more.

Scholastic Audio Books – Scholastic Audio specializes in contemporary books for kids and offers about 50 of their audio books on Spotify including The Hunger Games.

Speechworks Audio Books – If you like great speeches, then Speechworks features over 25 collections of original recordings of amazing speeches on Spotify.

Vibrance Press Audio Books – This publisher offers over 50 of their unabridged audio books on Spotify, mostly in the areas of personal growth.

BN Publishing Audio Books – Check out over 50 classic self help audio programs from BN Publishing on Spotify. Mixed in are some great speeches, classic radio programs, and other historic recordings.

CSA Word Audio Books – If you want to listen to classic literature in abridged format, then CSA Word has over 50 audio books that typically run 2-3 hours in length. These abridged classics feature outstanding professional narrators.

Saland Publishing Audio Books – Love Shakespeare? Saland Publishing offers over 25 full cast Shakespeare plays on Spotify with many superb actors.

Krishnamurti Foundation of America Audio Books – Listen to 30 audio programs from the renowned spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti on Spotify.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Audio Books – Smithsonian Folkways publishes a lot of music, but they also have released some great spoken word collections. We feature 15 of them from Spotify.

Musically Speaking Audio Books – Take a journey through classical music with over twenty “Conductor’s Guides” to some of the greatest music ever composed!

Osho Audio Books – Over 20 talks on Spotify from the famous spiritual guru Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (featured in the popular Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country).

NAXOS Audio Books – Listen to 27 hour-long introductions of famous operas and 11 4-hour-long composer biographies from NAXOS. They’re all on Spotify and we’ve collected them here on a blog post.

Earworms Audio Books – Over 15 language learning programs featuring essential words and phrases in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and more.

The Relaxation Company Audio Books – The Relaxation Company offers over 30 of their pioneering audio programs on Spotify to help your relax with meditations, guided relaxations, and audio sleep aids.

There are even more audio books than that on Spotify, but the 1,000 audio books from these publishers we think are the best!

January 7, 2019

12,000 New Audio Books in Our Downloads Section

We’ve recently added over 12,000 new educational audio books into our LearnOutLoud.com Audio Book Downloads Section! In case you didn’t know yet, we are now linking to Audible on Amazon.com for all of our audio book downloads. Browse over 40,000 audio books you can learn from on our site:

Over 40,000 Audio Book Downloads on LearnOutLoud.com

Here are some of the major audio book publishers we’ve added new audio books from:

8,200 Audio Book Downloads Published by Audible.com

4,000 Audio Book Downloads Published by Blackstone Audio

1,600 Audio Book Downloads Published by Brilliance Audio

1,300 Audio Book Downloads Published by christianaudio

1,500 Audio Book Downloads Published by Gildan Media (mostly covering personal and professional development)

1,400 Audio Book Downloads Published by Hachette Audio

1,700 Audio Book Downloads Published by Harper Audio

800 Audio Book Downloads Published by HighBridge Audio

900 Audio Book Downloads Published by Macmillan Audio

800 Audio Book Downloads Published by NAXOS AudioBooks (mostly classic literature)

1,000 Audio Book Downloads Published by Oasis Audio (mostly Christian living audio books)

1,000 Audio Book Downloads Published by Penguin Audio

2,700 Audio Book Downloads Published by Random House Audio

1,700 Audio Book Downloads Published by Recorded Books

1,700 Audio Book Downloads Published by Simon & Schuster Audio

900 Audio Book Downloads Published by Sounds True (mostly covering spiritual growth)

3,400 Audio Book Downloads Published by Tantor Audio

500 Audio Courses on Download Published by The Great Courses

300 Audio Book Downloads Published by Thomas Nelson Word (featuring Christian audio books)

300 Audio Book Downloads Published by Zondervan (featuring Christian audio books)

In the coming months we’ll be adding videos to accompany a lot of the audio books featuring talks by the authors or previews of the audio books. Find a new audio book to learn from in 2019!

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!