Turn It Up—audio books

By Kristi Spuhler for LitLovers
“What happens next?” is the crucial question that leaves us drinking words off a page like we’ve just come out of a literary desert. But what do you do when you have brain bandwidth available and no free hands to hold your book?

You know the times we’re talking about—sitting in traffic, cleaning the house or running around the block. Any of these occasions would be perfect to bust out the earbuds and take a listen to an audiobook, but some of us pause before we hit the play button.

Homer himself (not Simpson...the other one...of The Odyssey, The Illiad) was an oral storyteller, so why is there such debate over the "literary merit" of plugging into an audiobook? At it’s deepest roots, the art of storytelling was simply telling a story to a group of people. Getting lost in a story on your iPod is simply the 21st Century version of sitting in an amphitheater.

We say get your fiction on anyway you can! To help you out, we’ve found the top five free audiobook streaming sites for the next time you’re idling on the highway. Simply click, turn it up and enjoy.

Librivox—An entirely volunteer curated project that donates recorded books to the public for free. The coolest part? Anyone can sign up to read and upload a book!


Books Should Be Free—Dedicated to presenting available literature in a visually appealing way, you can flip through images of available covers instead of scrolling through pages of hyperlinks.


Podiobooks—If you’re looking for something a little different than the usual public domain titles, Podiobooks has you covered. Budding authors donate their works to the site for free streaming, though you do have the option of making a donation to the site as well.


Storynory- Perfect for a long car ride with little ones, Storynory offers a wide array of both classic fairy tales and original stories all performed by professional actors.


ThoughtAudio - Browse through a list of all the best literature and conversations aimed at making you think. Though you may stream the content on your computer for free, you may download some of these works on MP3 files for a small fee if you choose.

If you find a book you might "tune in to" on one of these sites, let us know which one!