Where to Download Free Online Audio Books

There are many sites where you can download audio books for free. These audio books may be free because they are in the public domain (meaning no one holds a copy right on these books and therefore anyone is free to distribute them), shared under a Creative Commons License or available to borrow from a library. You can download these stories directly onto your computer and put them on your iPod or other mobile device, burn them onto a CD to listen to in the car, etc. Here are some of the best sources to find free audio books on the web:

1. Books Should Be Free
2. NewFiction
3. ThoughtAudio
4. LibriVox
5. Open Culture
6. Podiobooks
7. Learn Out Loud
8. Project Gutenberg
9. Librophile
10. Storynory
11. Lit2Go
12. Free Classic Audio Books
13. Spoken Alexandria Project
14. OverDrive

This list is a work-in-progress. If I have missed any quality sites please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them.

Bonus – while Audible is not a free audio book site, the Audible free book offer allows you to download a free audio book as part of a 14 day no-obligation trial (this includes the latest bestsellers).

Where to Buy Audio Books

The following are five popular places to buy audio books online:

1. Audible
2. eMusic
3. Blackstone Audiobooks
4. iTunes
5. Simply Audiobooks

If you want to buy an individual audio book it is worth checking the price on each site as it may vary from site to site. Each site regularly has sales and it is worth checking to see whether there are any current coupons (eg Audible Coupons).

If you are a regular audio book listener, I recommend looking into a membership plan such as the Audible Gold Membership.

5 Benefits of Listening to Audio Books

If you haven’t already discovered the joy of listening to audio books, this post will hopefully convince you to give them a try. There are many benefits to listening to audio books, the following are my top 5:

1. Audio books can be listened to anytime and anyplace, e.g. traveling, commuting, exercising, shopping, working in the garden, or even dusting and vacuuming the house.

2. Audio books may improve your retention and comprehension of the material, especially if you are an auditory learner or if you are easily distracted by noises (headphones can help block out other noise and help you focus on the material).

3. Listening to an audio book can be more entertaining and exciting than reading a paperback book.  I enjoy when a narrator changes his or her inflections for the characters and doesn’t just read but acts!

4. For those of you who look at the computer monitor and documents for hours, listening to an audio book is more relaxing to your strained eyes after work.

5. Downloading audio books is quick and easy. And coupons (e.g. Audible coupons) or membership plans (e.g. Audible Gold Membership) make audio books affordable. You can even download a high-quality audio book for free as part of the Audible free trial.