Books, the testaments of felt emotions, worded story world and a journey through amalgamation of phrases and sentences. The universe and its tales have been composed in inked pages, available for generations to read. Books are those friends that not only teach us, but also open the secret doors of creativity in our heads. The habit of reading books has been instilled in every generation. They are the means through which we see the past, know the present and imagine the future. In all this reading world, we are closer to one more addition, that is about knowing what audio books are.
The traditional ways of reading books have been followed in every institution and even in individuals. But, have you ever imagined a book being read on your phones, laptops or tablets? If yes, then thanks to this digital world. We are now able to read books, but someone narrates for you. These developments in reading are termed as audio books . Audio books are recorded books that one can hear.
There are various additions to create and upgrade the facility for audio books . These are coupled with the benefits of them. In this article, there will be an elucidation to what audio books are. Further, it will also include the benefits of audio books . Lastly, the article will have a top 10 websites for free audio books.
Table of Contents
What Are Audio Books?
In general, audio books are the recordings of the books, available on the virtual library. The virtual library is the e-book platform that offers online copies of books. audio books are similar to the videos or the music that you listen to. They are accessible to you through designated virtual platforms. Similar to how you download the music and videos, you also download the audio books to read. Audio books can be available in two types. You can have the exact, verbatim recording of the novel. Or an abridged version, which will have some words, phrases or passages condensed.
Audio books are available in the form of digital audio files. Once you download these digital audio files, they are playable on various devices. You can listen to your audio books in mobile phones, laptops, tablets and computers. It can also be accessible in relevant audio streaming platforms. Interestingly, the digital advancement is just an expansion to the categories and facilitation of what audio books are . The first instance of audio books was recorded in the 1930s. These audio books were previously known as physical books. These physical books were sold in terms of cassettes that people have purchased. In an audiobook, the users can directly hear the reading books.
Several traditional writers have converted their books into ebooks due to popularity growth. This shift enables the writer to reach an audience, both through the traditional and technological aspects; there are also various benefits of audio books . Audio books create simplicity coupled with knowledge. It becomes easy to finish novels and stories in a short time. The audio books are also ideal for various other benefits that they provide. The benefits of audio books are elaborated in the next section.
You can also read our blog: 10 Best Free Kindle Books to Read in 2023
Benefits of audio books
While you must be contemplating whether to choose an audiobook, here are the benefits of audio books to make it easier for choice.
Saves Your Time
In your acquired mundane affairs, reading can be a handy task too. With workload piling in every time, making time to read books can be difficult. To solve this dilemma, audio books are the best options. You do not have to invest in reading the words and turning the pages. Rather, you could just play an audio book, and let the audio tell you the entire story. Audio book platform are also a perfect option, if you have less time to spare from your work or school. You could just use the ten or fifteen minutes to complete short audio books .
Wide Variety of Books
Genres in books are unlimited. With every increase, the genres for books keep increasing. While you might be wondering what audio books can offer you, they have all the types of books that you read. Right from poetry collections to famous novels, audio books genres are in wide variety. The recordings for the audio books also differ based on the types or genres. For instance, if you are wishing to listen to a poetry collection, the narration would be lyrical tone. It would exaggerate on certain parts to differ from the monotonous narration of the poems.
Melts You in Plot Situations
While reading a book does transcend your imaginative world, it might not be the case for all the time. It might also be hard for you to understand a plot, and that can surpass your imagination. With an audio book platform , you do not just read, but immerse into the character’s world completely. The unbroken narration will make you imagine simultaneously and believe that you are there in the particular situation. Imagining the situation also becomes easy, as you are already hearing someone narrating it to you. Audio books ensure realistic reading, wherein the listener is actually involved in the plot and characters.
Helps in Building Speaking Skills
Audio books are ideal to practically learn to speak and build pronunciation. Unlike in books, where you are the only reader, audio books help you to learn it with exact spellings and pronunciation. With this, audio books also extend in helping you to know how to speak a particular sentence or phrase. Further, audio books also assist you in uncovering the right way of saying a word, exaggeration points in sentences and how to end or start them. They also help you in building fluency and narrate or speak without unnecessary stops or stammering.
Establishes Critical Thinking
Reading audio books is an ideal way of establishing critical thinking skills. It is understood that audio books for children are an ideal way of increasing language retention amongst children. They help in understanding the layers in a narrative, when it is narrated to us. Further, audio book reading also help in learning new words in the story and thinking beyond what the plot is. The more the audio books are read, the more will be the grip of understanding the plots.
These are the benefits of audio books . Audio books are ideal for mastering the listening language, knowing fresh perspectives and indulging in visualizing the story. There are various free websites to get audio books . The top 10 websites for free audio books are mentioned in the next section.
Top 10 Websites For Free Audio Books
While most of the audio book platform are based on paid structure, there are various websites offering free audio books . The list of top 10 websites for free audio books are:
Lit2Go
A perfect website to filter all your audio books , Lit2Go, is an ideal platform. Here, you can find all kinds of audio books to read. You can filter your audio books search based on author, title of the books or the publishing date. On this audiobook platform, you can also search and read audio books based on the reading levels. This website uses the Flesch-Kincaid grading system to filter the audio books based on readability. Every audio book has a description, genre, publishing date, word count and readability. It is also an ideal audio book website to read transcripts in case the audio is not understandable.
ThoughtAudio
If you are new to using audio books and want to familiarize yourself through simple steps, then ThoughtAudio is the ideal audio book website. ThoughtAudio has simple and easy steps to read the audio books . The audio book platform is ideal for listening to books on classical literature and philosophies. These audio books are ideal to listen to without any payment. The platform has a complete list of audio books to select. There is also a search bar, to search for the relevant audio books that you want to listen to. The audio books have brief descriptions and introductions to the author. The platform is ideal to listen with simple access to the audio files.
Storynory
This audio book is ideal for finding audio books for children. Storynory is the largest platform for finding audio books for children. On this audiobook platform, there are various genres for children to listen to the audio books . You can search through different genres, including fairy tales, myths, classical authors, educational and others. The language is said clearly and in a speed that is understandable to the children. The stories are also told in different modulations, to build and maintain the interest of the children. You can also make the children read along with the audio books .
Open Culture
If you are looking to find a wide variety of audio books , Open Culture is the ideal platform to be. This audio book website is ideal for cultural and educational audio books . All these audiobook content are available for free. The best part about this audio book is, you will experience a school-learning situation. Along with listening to the audio books , you can also browse for audio books with certificates, courses and degrees. The audio book content at Open Culture is available in chronological and alphabetical order. You can search for your relevant audio books , based on the first letter of your audiobook.
Overdrive
Overdrive is an ideal audio book platform for finding modernists audio books . This platform is a mini virtual library, where you can find both audio books and ebooks. However, the catch is, you have to have a proper registration process to start with Overdrive. You have to use the student ID or a library card, to start listening to audio books . The audio book platform has various genres and collections to choose from. You also get simultaneous illustration while listening to the audio books . This is the best platform to listen to intriguing plots of the fresh generation.
Digital Books
Digital Books is an ideal audio book platform to listen to audio books of different languages. You can access this audio book platform very easily and with only a few credential details. The genres of audio books are of different ranges at Digital Books. There are plenty of audio books available in French and German languages. Also, you do not have to listen to the audio books in one language. Digital Books have various language options to listen to audio books . You can also listen to the audio books chapter wise. The downloading of the audio books is easy and can be saved to read in future.
Scribl
Scribl is a prominent audio book platform, if you want to listen to audio books at no cost or minimal cost. The website has a unique way of determining price or no price. If an audio book is listened to the most and popular, price will be imposed on it. However, if the audio book is read significantly less, then it is available for free. Therefore, the free-factor to listen to a particular audio book is determined by the popularity towards it. The platform has varied genres of audio books to read. Further, you can also get a transcription for the audio book that you listen to.
LibriVox
This platform for audio books is one of the largest ones for audiobook lovers. With over 16,000 audio books , you can get audio books in 42 different languages. The best part is, all these audio books on LibriVox, are maintained by the volunteers only. You can find most of the audio books in four languages, Spanish, Italian, German and French. These languages account for 2,000 audio books in total. You can get a complete catalog of the audio books , and search based on author, title and publishing date. You can download the audio books in the form of zip files, torrent, iTune files or RSS feeds.
Loyal Books
Loyal Books is the perfect audio book platform to get access to more than 7,000 titles. It has various genres of audio books that are on paid subscriptions at Kindle, iPhone and browser eBook. Further, the new audio books are also available with free access. You can also know the popularity and rating of the audio books to make the decision of listening to it or not. Further, the audio book platform has a sidebar on the left, which will recommend you the most read audio books . The audio books are available with brief description, interesting cover and author brief too.
BBC Sounds
An extension of BBC, BBC Sounds is the best website for audio books . The free audio books are part of the BBC Sounds Initiative. The audio books extend to different genres. It also includes podcasts, and documentaries. So, you will not be able to listen to stories in fiction but also the real-time stories. The genres of the audio books on BBC Sounds include real stories, fiction, stand-up comedy, memoirs, biographies, history and storytelling episodes. You can save the audio books to listen to later. There are approximately 100 titles of audio books available on BBC Sounds.
These are the top 10 websites for free audio books. These audio books are ideal to listen to the world of stories, with quality narration and projection.
You can also read our blog: Top 10 Free Kindle Books to read in 2022
Conclusion
The above article has a complete elaboration to what audio books are. Further, there is a detailed explanation to how audio books are beneficial. Lastly, the article has a complete list of top 10 websites for free audio books. These 10 free audio book websites have free audio books to download and read.
Commonly Asked FAQs
- Is Lit2Go free?
Yes, Lit2Go is a free portal to listen to different audio books . It has easy steps to register and access the audio books. On this audio book platform, you can also search and read audio books based on the reading levels. This website uses the Flesch-Kincaid grading system to filter the audio books based on readability.
- Is Storynory only for children?
Storynory is an ideal audio book platform for children. It has a wide collection of audio books for children. You can search through different genres, including fairy tales, myths, classical authors, educational and others. The language is said clearly and in a speed that is understandable to the children. The stories are also told in different modulations, to build and maintain the interest of the children.
- What kind of audio books does Open Culture have?
Open Culture has educational and cultural audio books . It is ideal for students and scholars who want to attain scholarly audio books for gaining information. he best part about this audiobook is, you will experience a school-learning situation. Along with listening to the audio books , you can also browse for audio books with certificates, courses and degrees. The audiobook content at Open Culture is available in chronological and alphabetical order.
- Does the BBC Sounds good for audio books ?
BBC Sounds is a prominent platform to get access to various audio books . These audio books are related to a wide variety of genres. The free audio books are part of the BBC Sounds Initiative. The audio books extend to different genres. It also includes podcasts, and documentaries. So, you will not be able to listen to stories in fiction but also the real-time stories. The genres of the audio books on BBC Sounds include real stories, fiction, stand-up comedy, memoirs, biographies, history and storytelling episodes.
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