June 1, 2010

“I love it when I get an email from someone reading a PG (Project Gutenberg) e-book in Urdu on a cell phone in the Serengeti Plain in Africa” shared Michael Hart in an interview a few years back. The founder of PG, an online catalog of free downloadable e-books and audio books, Hart started the all-volunteer venture – named after the German printer Johannes Gutenberg – in 1971. It has since spawned sister sites around the world, copycat projects from the likes of Google and Yahoo and carries thousands of works in Catalan, Galician, Welsh and more, all ready for reading on a PC, iPhone, Kindle or other portable device.

So who says nothing in life is free? At the website booksshouldbefree.com too visitors can get free audio versions of many literary classics in MP3, iTunes and iPod formats. This is made possible thanks to Librivox; a partner of PG, Librivox is attempting to convert all books in the public domain into audio books with the help of volunteers. If you enjoy reading, have impressive intonation, like creating sound effects (the last two aren’t prerequisites) and want to share your enthusiasm with others, record your readings and submit them to Librivox.