A Book By Any Other Name

LibriVox: Acoustical liberation of Books in the Public Domain

LibriVox just cataloged their one-thousandth book, and that's good news for you and me! Why? Well, LibriVox has a number of things to offer. One, you can listen to free audiobooks that are in the public domain. Do this by downloading the file onto your computer, and listen to it there or on your portable device while cooking, biking, or working out at the gym!

Another great thing LibriVox offers is the opportunity to participate. With just a computer and free software you can record chapters of books that will eventually be completed and available to everyone. There is a catalog to search for books that have been recorded or are in the process of being recorded. One Icelandic favorite I found was Eirik the Red's Saga. Primarily English language texts are represented, but so far over twenty languages are represented. All this they have accomplished in just two years.

LibriVox gets most of their texts from Project Gutenberg, which you also want to know about. Founded in 1971, Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library. Its goal is "to provide as many e-books in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible." Volunteers have digitized over 22,000 public domain texts. You can search these, download, and read them. You can also help by volunteering to proof-read just one page a day (or more!).