Are you hoping for an ereader for Christmas? Is that what you are getting yourself for Christmas? If you are hoping for an ereader, check out your book & download options at our Overdrive site. (And look at our August blog entry for other free ebook options.)
But remember, those nifty devices aren't the only option for paperless reading. Some folks like to listen to their books; maybe it harkens back to that childhood joy of being read to... And if you are one of those folks, now there is another FREE option for recorded books.
That option is LibriVox which provides free audiobooks from the public domain. You get the mp3 or ogg files on your computer or device and then listen to the books.
LibriVox is a nice play on words: vox is Latin for voice, while libri is Latin for books, which is closely related to liber, or free--the root for liberty! Their tag line is "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." And in the spirit of liberty, equality, and freedom, LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and publish the audio files on the Internet.
Public domain means that the copyright on the book has expired, so we are talking about older or classic books. But the cool thing is that it is not just English books. Other languages are also available; it's based on what the volunteers have contributed. So you can listen to books in other languages, which is a great way to get your ear accustomed to that other language you have always wanted to learn!
Or you can just listen to a Zane Grey title like The Rainbow Trail! The LibriVox page for each title also has other information, like a link to the Wikipedia entry on the book, the Gutenberg e-text and an RSS feed to subscribe in iTunes.
p.s. you CAN listen to books with your ereader....
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