The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

I created this short story audiobook using TextAloud, a text2speech program.

I made a torrent file for it, and I'd like to see if you guys are able to download it.

Please test it for me and let me know what you think. I can create more if you have any requests.

I chose this text because I had recently seen the movie, and the story is in the public domain.

Typee, By Herman Melville

I'm being a little redundant here, referring you to Librivox again, but I just finished "reading" Typee yesterday, and wanted to recommend it.

I've listened to a few Librivox recordings, and they're all good, but it's a special treat when they offer a book done entirely by the same narrator, rather than different voices for different chapters. Not only that, this narrator, Michael Scherer, is especially good at what he does. He has narrated many books, and donated the Typee recordings to Librivox.

Here's the book description from the Librivox site:

Typee is Herman Melville’s first book, recounting his experiences after having jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands in 1842, and becoming a captive of a cannibal island tribe. It was an immediate success in America and England, and was Melville’s most popular work during his lifetime. It was not until the end of the 1930’s that it was surpassed in popularity by Moby Dick, more than thirty years after his death. The story provoked harsh criticism for its condemnation of missionary efforts in the Pacific Islands. Many sought to discredit the book, claiming that it was a work of fiction, but this criticism ended when the events it described were corroborated by Melville’s fellow castaway, Richard T. Greene, who appears in the story as the character Toby (Summary by Michael)

I love books of a seafaring nature, and especially true life stories. I came to love the Typee people, and envy anyone who had been captured by cannibals.

For another Librivox sea tale, see Treasure Island.

Bit Torrent

I've been reluctant to post this, but here goes.

If you don't know what a torrent file is, it's time to learn. Go to BitTorrent.com and read about it, and download their software.

Torrent files are small text files that allow the software to find data on the web. By "data" I mean computer files in the form of software, music, and yes, audiobooks.

I've known about torrents or quite a while, but it seemed like I could never get them to download anything. Maybe I was choosing bad files (some will never work), or maybe there just weren't enough other users at that time (it's P2P and relies on user participation), but it works great now. I've downloaded about ten gigabytes this week (no joke).

From the BitTorrent site you can type in a search query for the titles you want, or you can go to The Pirate Bay, where there's a category devoted to audiobooks.

Bear in mind that not all of these books are in the public domain, so you're on your honor to download legally. They have all the Harry Potter books, as well as Douglas Adams books. In some cases, you would be legally allowed to download them. I trust you to do the right thing.

FreeAudio.org

This is a strange concept. The aim of FreeAudio.org is to use traffic jams as a means of facilitating liberty. I can't say that's likely to happen, but they do offer audiobooks on the topics of liberty and history.

Lots of Children's Stories

Here's a church website that offers downloadable children's stories in MP3 format.

Burn them to a CD for your next long car trip.

The Koran

Here are two sites that offer the Koran online.

This one only works with Internet Explorer (boo).

This one is a software download that seems to include Islamic instruction.

I haven't downloaded either one. Let me know if there's a problem.

Sherlock Holmes

I've read several of the Sherlock stories, but I'm excited to see them in downloadable audiobook format.

Download complete zipped works here.

Download individual chapters here.

Keep track of the progress of new chapters at the Pink Geek Audio Blog.

Lady Chatterly's Lover

I'm not sure I'll listen to this one, since I've already read the book. Heck, I barely have time for audiobooks, much less time to re-read. I'd love to re-read my old favorites, but there are so many great books I haven't read, and life is so short.

Lady Chatterly's Lover was as racy as I expected it to be. I could see why it caused a stir in its day.

This audio version isn't yet complete, and it seems to be taking quite a while. Decide for yourself whether you want to start it before all the chapters are available.

The Bible

No audiobook collection is complete without The Big Book

Italian Lessons

If you'd like to learn Italian, you might want to get your feet wet at LearnItalianPod.com. It's a podcast of Italian language lessons covering different skill levels.