Free Audio Books Online

Introduction

This is a listing of 57 sites that legally offer free audio books, either for online listening or for download. 

I compiled this list  while creating the article for books to read:  100+ Places For Free Books Online .

Given the large amount of sites and offerings, I am not able to give more detailed information on each of the sites.  I would appreciate comments from any of you that use these sites, so that I can add it to the information for that site in the listing.

I have put up separate pages for certain genres that list both audio books and books for reading. Some of the sites listed here, that are not listed on the genre pages, will also have books for a genre but did not have a separate listing.
 

• Free Children's Books Online
• Free Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Online
• Free Horror, Ghost & Gothic Books Online
• Free Romance Books Online
• Free Computer & Internet Books Online
• Free Mystery, Detective, Thriller & Crime (Fiction) Books Online
• Free "Westerns" Books Online
• Free Cooking Food & Wine Books Online
• Free Religion & Spirituality Books Online
• Free Health, Fitness & Medicine Books Online
• Free Biography, Autobiography & Memoir Books Online
• Free Travel Books Online
• Free History Books Online
• Free Business Books Online

All of the listings here are, to the best of my knowledge, offering legal content.  If you find that any of these sites are not offering legal content, then please let me know through the comments below.

If you know of any other sites offering free and legal audio books, then please post them in the comments below.

Most entries at those sites that offer only online listening can be downloaded with the Firefox addon DownloadHelper.

Libraries are an excellent source for audio books and I have inserted a section at the end to help you find information on your local library. Library Information

Alphabetical Listing

AmericanaPhonic offers audio narrations of  American historical works and current government publications for download in AAC.

AudioBooks.net offers 462 free audio books for download.  You must register (free) to download.  While many are available elsewhere, there is also a very good amount there I did not see elsewhere.

AudioBooks.org offers 4 free classic novels for download.

AudioBooksForFree has over 1500 free audio books for download in MP3.  The free downloads are in low quality (8kbps) and registration is required.  The offerings are well divided into categories and sub-categories.

AudioBookTreasury offers about 50 audio books for free download in MP3 (or complete work in Zip) or for listening online.  Many are available elsewhere, but they do have a nice collection of Sherlock Holmes books and a nice collection of Edgar Allan Poe's writings.

AudioCloset offers only a few audiobooks.  The quality is excellent, but they come in Zip format and need to be unpacked with a password.  You need to provide your email address to receive password by email.

AudioLiteratureOdyssey is a site maintained by voice actor Nikolle Doolin.  It is a small, but interesting, collection available for download in MP3 format.

BabbleBooks  has a small collection of free audiobooks available as podcasts. 

BMWAudioBooks The car manufacturer, BMW, has released several short stories that will not be found elsewhere.

BooksFree has a small collection, with a few unique entries, available for download in MP3 (64kb) format.

BooksonMP3 offers a few free audio works for download in MP3.

BooksShouldBeFree offers several hundred free audio books available for download in very good quality MP3 or as text for reading.  The works are divided into 16 categories.  Some are common to many of these sites, but there is a good amount not to be found elsewhere.

CandlelightStories has several newer audiobooks for free download in podcast form and several other classic audio for download.  Also, in another section has a Tom Swift audio book for free.

ChristianClassicsEtherealLibrary has 35 audio books of classic Christian writers, including Chesterton, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, available for download in good quality MP3 (24kbps).

CinnamonBear is a British site featuring the adventures of Paddy O'Cinnamon available for download in MP3 format.  The quality is very good, but the stories are divided into separate downloads of small sections.  A nice unusual listing though.

CommonSenseAtheism offers 70+ free audio books and lectures on religion.  Most of them are from Librivox, but there are a few that are not and it is a nice listing of religious themed works.

Earthbound AudioBooks has the five volume science fiction Earthbound series available for download in very good quality MP3 or for streaming.

EasyMediaBroadcast has some novels and short stories for download in MP4 (zip)

ejunto has a small, but interesting, collection of free History, Science and Philosophy audio books available for download in good quality MP3. 

FreeAudio small collection of free audio books, mostly USA historical and political, with a couple of unusual entries.  They are available for download in MP3.

FreeBooks.org has over 1000 free audio books available for download in good quality MP3.  Most of the entries are computer read, though there are a few human read audio books.  They are divided into quite a few categories, though I did not find their categorizing all that helpful.

FreeChristianAudioBooks has a small collection of Christian audio books for free download in WMA, MP3 or AAC.  Most of these works are not available elsewhere.

FreeClassicAudioBooks has around 60 classic works available for download in MP3 (32kbps) or iPod friendly m4b (32kbps).  They are pretty much split between human read and computer.

FreeMP3AudioBooks small collection, but with a couple of unique entries, available for download in MP3 format.

GetAudioBooks  has a large collection of audio books for listening (or download if you have add on or software).  It is not very well arranged and search is only by book name or for word(s) in a book name.

GlobeRadioRepertory (InterenetArchive) offers Madame Bovary, Don Quixote and 16 Stories by Anton Chekhov for download in MP3, Ogg Vorbis or online listening.

GutenbergProject has a very large collection of both human read and computer generated audio books available for download in high quality MP3 (128kbps), ogg vorbis (variable bit rate) and Apple AAC (16kbps mono).  Also available in Speex audio, which I an unfamiliar with.  There is no categorizing of the audio books.

HighlightsKids has 9 books available for listening and viewing online through a flash player.  The site also has games, puzzles, reading stories and science experiments and stories for children.

InternetArchive has a large collection of audio books from different sources available for download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis or for online listening.  Even though the works are available at other sites, the Internet Archive offers them for download in different formats and is a bit more convenient.

iT'SFreeDownloads has a listing of free audio books offered by iTunes.  Many are samples, but there are several complete works.

JimKelly (InternetArchive) the internet archive offers a number of works by Science Fiction writer Jim Kelly, originally offered as podcasts, for online listening or download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.

KabbalahAudioBooks has a few, nicely recorded, audio books for free download in MP3 format.

KidsAudioBooks Very good site which lists many of the same records listed at KiddieRecordsWeekly, but has them all available in one download.  Also has some old time radio shows as well as a small collection of coloring (images to be saved) and reading books (pdf download).

KidsCorner has several Beatrix Potter works and several other classic works for free download in RealPlayer format.

KidsNurseryRhymes has singalong nursery rhymes for online listening and disco sing alongs for download in MP3 format.

KiddieRecordsWeekly has a very interesting collection of stories.  These were recorded on records during the mid 1940s to the early 1950s.  Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers of the day.  There are around 250 recordings available for download in high quality MP3 format or they can be streamed.  Some are available as one download, but most are available in several segments. (See KidsAudioBooks for easier download).

LearnOutLoud lists almost 2500 audio (and some video) works.  They are available in different ways, including online listening, MP3 or MP4 as many link to other sites.  Still a very interesting collection with some unusual items.

LibriVox has over 2000 free audio books (and always growing) available for download in MP3 (64kb/128kb) or ogg vorbis.  All are human read.  This is a very nice collection.

LightUpYourBrain has 14 childrens audio books available for download in MP3 or for listening online.  All are read by Chuck Brown.  There is also a large collection of childrens games available at the site.

LitToGo is a project of the Florida Educational Technology clearing house that offers a very large collection of interesting audio books and poems.  All are available for download in very good quality MP3.  They are also available for online reading.  They offer browse by title or author or search, but no categories.

LiteralSystems is a site maintained by a group of local Santa Fe, NM, USA, actors and technicians that offers around 50 very interesting audio books for download in excellent quality MP3.  Some are available for direct download at the site and others are hosted at LoudLit.

LoudLit offers a small collection of free audio books, but with some unusual entries.  They are available for online listening (and reading) or download in MP3.  All are human read.

MariaLectrix is a site that is primarily known for its books catering to a Catholic readership. However they also have some interesting works that are not religious oriented, particularly in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Mystery categories.  For listening online.

MarkMoxonTravelWriting a nice little collection of Mark Moxon's travel writings available for download in MP3 or AAC.

MP3Audiobooks  has a large collection of free audiobooks for listening.  They are sorted alphabetically by book name or author.  Also has list of most listened to audiobooks and authors for the day.  You must register to use.

MusicalTales has the original work "Helena and the Orchestra of the World of Mist" available as an audio book, video or illustrated text.

OnlineLibraryofLiberty offers a good number of economic and political science books for download in MP3

OpenCulture lists a large collection of free audio books available for free download in good quality MP3 or iTunes compatible.  Some are available for direct download, but most link to other sites for download.

Podiobooks offers around 100 audio books available for download in very good quality MP3.  These were originally released as podcasts (and still are) but most are completed.  Most of this collection will not be found elsewhere.

Robert Munsch has about 60 books by Robert Munsch (and read by him) available for download in MP3 format.

Speakaboos is a site for children that has about 100 books available for listening and viewing online through a flash viewer.  Downloads are available for a fee, though some are available free after registering.  They also have a Play area with arts and crafts projects.

SpokenAlexandriaProject has a small collection of free audio books available in MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC download.  Most are also available elsewhere, but there are few unique ones here.

StoriesNow offers a small but interesting collection of free Science Fiction, Fairy Tales and Sherlock Holmes audio books for download in MP3.  Also, some older Radio Dramas and some radio broadcasts of the Mercury Theater.

StoryLineOnline is a site for children that has audio books available for online listening and viewing through a flash player.  There are also activities associated with the book available online or for download in pdf.  This site is a program of the Screen Actors Guild and features well known actors as the readers.

Storynory has a good size collection of interesting children stories.  There are original stories as well as classic novels and fairy tales.  The educational page has Greek myths and Robin Hood stories and some others.  The Junior stories page has books for those just learning to read.  Downloads are very good quality MP3.

ThoughtAudio offers around 70 audio books for free download in good quality MP3 format.  Many are not available elsewhere and this is an interesting collection.

TruthForTheEndOfTime offers a good number of Christian audio books for streaming or download in MP3 (128kb).

Libraries

On the advice of anonymous poster that most public library systems offer free ebooks, audiobooks, and music downloads to their customers for free, I did some checking and found that there are a large amount of offerings available through online libraries.  It appears most, if not all, require a local library card.  These are sites that have links to local library sites.

LibWeb is a good search source for local libraries online. A good selection of US and worldwide locations.

Public Libraries very good for US, looked not as thorough as LibWeb on worldwide.

Internet Public Library also has some links, but I found the above two to be superior set ups.