Free Audio books and How to Load them on Kindle

     I remember the first time I did a search for free audio books and e-books.  Site after site claimed to post free books, but when I got to the site, there were only a handful of books to choose from or none at all.  I became so frustrated, that I was sure the “free book” thing was a myth and I gave up.  Not long after this, I purchased the book: The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.  Though I was not able to quit my job after reading this book, I did discover many very useful links to include two great links for free audio and e-books; Librivox and Gutenberg.

Audio Books: www.librivox.org

E-Books: www.gutenberg.org

LibriVox

On libriVox, you will find hundreds of audio books, which are read by volunteers and are edited and processed by libriVox.org.  Though public domain books are generally the classics, there are a wide variety of genres including historical, scientific and religious texts.  LibriVox audio books are also available in many different languages.  It all depends on who wants to read what and volunteers submit recordings from around the world. 

Gutenberg Project

The Gutenberg project has a much larger collection of books than LibriVox and is continually adding add free e-books to their catalog.  Gutenberg offers each of its books in a variety of formats to include the Kindle version.  Additionally, most of the audio books on libriVox come from the Gutenberg project.

As a side note, both sites use literature in the public domain, are not for profit and are run by donations and volunteers.

How to Load Audio Books to Kindle

     Once you have visited librivox.org, click on the “LibriVox Catalogue,” under the heading, Listen. This will take you to the main search page where you can do a simple search, advanced searches or browse the entire catalogue in alphabetic order.  Once you’ve found the book you want, click on the link, then scroll down to the individual chapter files.  The first file for each chapter is the best to select since it is the smallest and in MP3 format.  Right click on the link and select save link.  The exact wording will be different depending on what operating system you are using.  Collect all the chapter files in this manner and then plug your Kindle into your computer.  I am not sure about the earlier Kindle versions, but for 3^rd generation Kindles, add the folder full of MP3 chapters to the “audible” folder on your Kindle.   

     Although, these are not audio books from audible, they can still be viewed perfectly on your Kindle when placed in this folder.  Eject your Kindle and then create a collection for the audio book that you added.  Add the files marked “audio” to the collection and you are done.  I was actually surprised at how easy it was the first time I did it.  The only issue you may run into is that your Kindle may not be able to hold a large number of audio books.  The best thing is to add a hand full of audio books, listen to them and remove them to make room for more.  So, now that you have these two sites, you can stop searching, start downloading and enjoy listening to your new audio book collection.