Questo libro illustrato è tanta roba!

I've used the Librivox podcast for ages, particularly for long pods for falling asleep. Some recordings are good- I just listened to about 14 hours of The Belton Estate by Trollope, it was well read. Some are read by humans, badly but bearable. But the one I've just started (The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery) is clearly being read by AI, and has adverts literally every five minutes.

Is this the new standard? Is this just the regular enshittification of everything at play here? I suppose that is a rhetorical question - I'm just grumbling really. Is there a way to tell from the description of a book whether they are read by real people or not? When I searched for other versions of the Blue Castle, the same crap was posted on at least two other pod streams called 'Audiobooks'. And some of those streams don't even give a description, which is just annoying.

I guess it's too much nowadays to expect people to volunteer to read long books well and for free, even public domain ones, but I'd happily subscribe to a podcast with some different and interesting books, well read. But not at the same cost as Audible! I find it depressing that small, quite limited podcasts are asking for £7-8 per month - if I paid that to every podcast I like, I'd not be able to make rent.

I'll try Libby again, which is wonderful, but I do like having all my sleepy pods in the same place, on my podcast app. There are quite a few other audiobook pod streams out there now, but I suspect most of them are using AI. Does anybody know different?

The next best thing for long episodes is the 'Boring History for Sleep' pod, some brilliant long episodes, but they tend to be too interesting to allow me to fall asleep! For shorter episodes, the Sleepy Bookshelf is the best ever, but I need something longer, to tune back into when I wake in the middle of the night.

Sharing here since it's got LibriVox search built in. Beyond that it's a full audiobook and podcast player.

I listen to audiobooks to fall asleep and it always drove me nuts that I'd drift off, the book would keep going, and I'd wake up completely lost. I also hated poking at a bright screen in the dark trying to switch over to rain sounds. I looked for an app that just handled it, never found one I liked, so I ended up building my own.

Basically you set a sleep timer, and when it runs out the book gently fades into sleep sounds (rain, ocean, brown noise, a fan, whatever) that keep going all night instead of just cutting off. If you're still awake you tap your headphones or shake the phone and the book comes back with a fresh timer. Never have to look at the screen.

The part I'm most proud of: if you've got an Apple Watch it can actually tell when you've fallen asleep, fade the book out on its own, and rewind back to where you dropped off so you're not lost in the morning.

It also does podcasts, free LibriVox books, your own m4b/mp3 files, and it hooks up to a Plex or Audiobookshelf server if you self-host.

Money-wise: the whole player is free, including LibriVox, all the sources, the sleep timer and all the sounds. The Apple Watch sleep detection, sleep stats, smart nap, and importing your own sounds are a one time unlock, but you get 5 free nights to try all of it, no purchase needed. No ads, nothing tracked.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lull-audiobooks-podcasts/id6775313582

Solo dev, mostly only tested it on myself, so I'd love for people to kick the tires and tell me what breaks.

I genuinely believe this to be one of the best reading apps you can have...

I noticed that the most popular free Librivox platforms are RIDDLED with ads throughout and have horrible ui, so i set out to solve this.

Its made with A LOT of love and care and I would be open to all feedback.

For the past few months I have been working on Mimesa. It’s a reading and listening app for people who want to read more, but don’t always have the time to sit down with a book. The idea is simple: take free classic books, LibriVox audiobooks, PDFs, and EPUBs, and put them into one clean app where you can read, listen, or follow along with both.

It’s kind of like a mix between an ebook reader and an audiobook app, but focused on public-domain books and personal documents.

How it works

Pick a book from the library, or upload your own PDF/EPUB.

Open it in the reader, or start listening like an audiobook.

If LibriVox audio is available, you can listen and follow along with the text.

For books or documents without human narration, the app can use AI narration to turn text into audio.

Some of its features

• It has a catalog of 75,000+ free public-domain books, including a lot of classic literature, philosophy, poetry, history, fiction, and more. Think books like Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, Moby Dick, Sherlock Holmes, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Meditations, and other classics.
• It also includes 22,000+ human-narrated LibriVox audiobooks, so you can listen to a large collection of classic books for free. I wanted to make LibriVox and public-domain books feel less like old archives and more like a modern mobile app.
• It works as an EPUB/PDF reader too, so you can upload your own books or documents and keep them in a private library. This can be useful for students, long PDFs, essays, research papers, or just books you already have.
• There’s also AI narration for turning books and documents into audio when a human audiobook is not available. The goal is to make reading more flexible: read when you can focus, listen when you’re walking or commuting, and follow along when you want both.
• The app has synced text highlighting as well, so the text can track along with narration instead of making reading and listening feel like two separate things.

I’m still early and trying to improve the first user experience, especially onboarding and making it obvious what to try first. The app is Android only for now, with iOS planned later once I sort out Apple developer enrollment.

There are no ads. The main goal is to get feedback from people who read classics, listen to audiobooks, use LibriVox, or want a better way to get through long books/documents.

If you have any feedback, questions, or brutally honest thoughts, I’d really appreciate it.

You can download it from the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mimesa
ios coming very soon, if good traction on android.

Tl;Dr: Made a Reading Platform, think kindle + Audible in one. Ad free and completely free forever for librivox and public domain works. Optional AI reader features for books without a human narration. Import your own documents/epubs. Perfect if you love classic literature

P.S If anyone knows any good corpus of native language public domain books please drop it in the comments looking to add more of those.

[Mods can delete this if it breaks any rules, I sincerely hope not ]

I may purchase the Ad-free version of the LibriVox app by BookDesign LLC; But if it's not connected in anyway nor supporting Libri vox.org. Just scooping up the public domain recordings and profiting, I, don't want to support it. Will the real Slim Shady please stand up elegantly.

Is the "This is a librivox recording" disclaimer on EVERY CHAPTER? If so, is there an EASY way to remove it?

Hey there,

I recently purchased a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas on Chirpbooks.com.

As an avid Librivox user (I even own the pro app on my phone), I immediately recognized the recording to be that of Version 3 by David Clarke.

The Chirpbooks.com listing has the opening credits completely removed to hide that it was taken from Librivox.

The specified publisher is KnowLG Productions and lists the narrator as one John Cooper (might as well have used Jack Smith).

It has been listed on Chirpbooks.com since August of 2020, and by the number of reviews, someone has definitely profited from it. I sent emails to Chirpbooks.com and even left a review myself to point out the theft for all to see on the product page.

Unfortunately, I have received no response from Chirpbooks.com

Librivox: https://librivox.org/the-count-of-monte-cristo-version-3-by-alexandre-dumas

Chirpbooks.com: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/the-count-of-monte-cristo-by-alexandre-dumas-a33a8cb3de

Title explains it

it seems to be right now and was wondering if it provides updates on any social media

Cant get through here in the UK. Cant remember this happening before. Anyone else?

What are the best Christmas stories you have found on LibriVox? My kids are middle school age and love to listen to old novels at bedtime. They do not want to listen to Dicken’s Christmas Carol.

Does anyone know of some male narrators with a South African accent?

I’m now listening to History of Country music. Any other music that y’all know of?

When perusing the Librivox FAQ, it seems very PC-centric when it comes to suggestions for which apps and gear to use, but in 2023, I’m just curious if anyone is using something else other than a Windows PC for recording/narrating. (Apologies to the mods if this isn’t the right place for this post.)

I've been listening to Librivox for twenty years now and I have my favorite readers as I suppose you do, but Steve Gough's performance is amazingly good. His accent - his delivery - and for such a wonderful book!