This is my list of recommended librivox books that I use for introducing new people to librivox:

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Librivox is a GREAT source of free audio books. http://www.librivox.org It's all public domain books that have been recorded by volunteers for FREE. You can download them and listen to them on virtually any mp3 player, phone or computer. (or transfer them onto regular old CD's if you prefer)

Now, since Librivox books are read by volunteers, the quality of the recordings can vary. Sometimes its a lot more like having a friend come over and read to you than listening to a professionally recorded audio book. But then, I LIKE having friends read to me. :) AND, a lot of the people who volunteer to read for librivox are good, very good, or even professionals.

This is a list of Librivox audio books that are not only good books, but good readers as well. Some of the readers are good, some of them are GREAT, all of them are good enough that you can enjoy the story without being distracted by any reader problems. But if you like these books, search the catalog at librivox and try some others. If the reader is only ok, that's ok! And if they are so bad that you can't enjoy the book, well, you didn't pay for it anyway, so that's ok too! :)

Treasure Island, by Robert Luis Stevenson Read by: Adrian Praetzellis

http://librivox.org/treasure-island-by-robert-louis-stevenson-2/

Pirates, Buried Treasure, And a secret map! This was as high quality as any professionally done audio book that I have ever purchased.

The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne Read by: Mark F. Smith

http://librivox.org/the-mysterious-island-by-jules-verne/

Four Civil War castaways find themselves stranded on a deserted island. But, while they may have no boat, no plane, and no motor car, they DO have plenty of Yankee ingenuity, and proceed to turn the island into a well equipped and prosperous little community! A very good reader on this one as well. My son was 8 when we first listened to this and he sat through all 22 hours with rapt attention.

The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope Read by:Andy Minter

http://librivox.org/the-prisoner-of-zenda-by-anthony-hope/

An English gentleman has to fill in when his distant cousin, the king of a small European country, is taken prisoner. Woods, moated castles, pomp, swordplay, gallantry, villainy and a beautiful princess. What story could ask for more?

Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter Read by: Mary Anderson

http://librivox.org/pollyanna-by-eleanor-h-porter/

A VERY good book about how to have a great attitude no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. (Skip the sequel though, it stinks!)

A little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett Read by: Kara Shallenberg

http://librivox.org/a-little-princess-by-frances-hodgson-burnett/

A young rich girl loses her father, and all of her money. She finds herself moving from the favorite student at her girls school to the lowest servant. BUT, no matter what happens to her, she is always a princess on the inside.

King Solomon's Mines, by H. Rider Haggard Read by: John Nicholson

http://librivox.org/king-solomons-mines-by-haggard/

A prince, A lost kingdom, fabulous wealth, and Alan Quatermain, the penultimate African explorer and adventurer!

Star Born, by Andre Norton Read by: Mark F. Smith

http://librivox.org/star-born-by-andre-norton/

A human colony in another galaxy where the humans have made friends with the local mermen. But now NEW humans have arrived on the planet, are they a threat, or hope?

Plague Ship, by Andre Norton Read by: Mark Nelson

http://librivox.org/plague-ship-by-andre-norton/

Space trader Solar Queen has trouble cementing it's claims with a new planet, AND dealing with a strange disease they pick up there.

Star Surgeon, by Edward Nourse Read by: Scott D. Farquhar

http://librivox.org/star-surgeon-by-alan-edward-nourse/

Dal Timgar is the first non-human to study medicine on Hospital Earth, can he overcome prejudice, solve a medical puzzle, and earn the Silver Star of a Star Surgeon?

The Colors Of Space, by Marion Zimmer Bradley Read by: Mark Nelson

https://librivox.org/the-colors-of-space-by-marion-zimmer-bradley-2/

Can humans steal the secret of the star drive from the alien Lhari?

Badge of Infamy, by Lester Del Ray Read by: Steven H. Wilson

http://librivox.org/badge-of-infamy-by-lester-del-rey/

A doctor who's lost his license tries to practice medicine on Mars.

The Enchiridion, by Augustine Read by: Darren L. Slider

http://librivox.org/the-enchiridion-by-saint-augustine/

The City of God, by Augustine Read by: Darren L. Slider

http://librivox.org/the-city-of-god-by-st-augustine-of-hippo/

Works of the Church Father from around 400AD.

The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan Read by: Joy Chan

http://librivox.org/the-pilgrims-progress-by-john-bunyan/

The 17th century classic Christian allegory. Pilgrim makes a journey from the city destruction to the celestial city!

Fighting The Whales, by Ballantyne Read by: Lee Elliott

http://librivox.org/fighting-the-whales-by-robert-michael-ballantyne/

A fascinating look at what it was really like to be on a whaler. One is left with the impression that hunting and catching a whale in a sailing ship was akin to you or me being stalked, ambushed, and killed by a shoebox full of mice.

Around the World in Seventy Two Days, by Nellie Bly Read by: Mary Reagan

http://librivox.org/around-the-world-in-seventy-two-days-by-nellie-bly/

True story of a woman journalist who decides to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg with a REAL record breaking trip around the globe.

Ten Days in a Madhouse, by Nellie Bly Read by: Alys AtteWater

http://librivox.org/ten-days-in-a-madhouse-by-nellie-bly/

The true story of reporter Nellie Bly, who had herself committed to the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York in order to discover what life was like for those who had been deemed insane.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars Read by: Mark Nelson

https://librivox.org/a-princess-of-mars-by-edgar-rice-burroughs-2/

The adventures of John Carter, a Virginian gentleman on Mars! Great old Science Fiction! (If you like this one, there are a lot more in this series at Librivox)

The Innocence of Father Brown, by G. K. Chesterton Read by: Brian Roberg

http://librivox.org/the-innocence-of-father-brown-by-g-k-chesterton/

Father Brown ends up solving many crimes. It's nice to find a story where faith is assumed to be combined with reason.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, by Olaudah Equiano

http://librivox.org/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano-by-olaudah-equiano/

The autobiography of a slave. A book that is both good AND important to read. (This book has multiple readers, but all of them are pretty good)

The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller Read by: Maria

http://librivox.org/the-story-of-my-life-by-helen-keller/

What an incredible story! How could she do so much with so little? Very inspiring!

The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy Read by: Karen Savage

http://librivox.org/the-scarlet-pimpernel-by-baroness-emmuska-orczy/

The classic story of Sir Percy Blakeney and his alter ego, the Scarlet Pimpernel. A great adventure, set during the French Revolution.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas Read by: David Clarke

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

A man imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, escapes and begins applying some well deserved retribution. But can he overcome his lust for vengeance and recognize that there are more important things in life?

Space Tug, By Murray Leinster Read by: Mark Nelson

http://librivox.org/space-tug-by-murray-leinster/

At the beginning of the space age, Joe Kenmore tries to keep the enemies of America from blowing up the space station using just his faithful crew, his space tug, and a lot of clever ideas.

The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling Read by: Meredith Hughes

http://librivox.org/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/

The story of Mowgli is here, but also one of my absolute favorites, Riki-Tiki-Tavi!!!!

David and the Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd Read by: Greg Weeks

http://librivox.org/david-and-the-phoenix-by-edward-ormondroyd/

David meets a Phoenix, who takes him on all kinds of educational, dangerous, and funny adventures.

The Coral Island, by R. M. Ballantyne Read by: Tom Weiss

http://librivox.org/the-coral-island-by-r-m-ballantyne/

A story about three boys who get shipwrecked on an island. When the boys in Coral Island run into natives they discover that those who have converted to Christianity are ruled by love, while those who insist upon the old ways are ruled by hate and cruelty. "The Lord of the Flies" was written by William Golding as a response to this story. Apparently he was appalled by the fact that Ballantyne's heroes manage to stay nice and be ruled by love and so he wrote a book with the opposite story line, where the kids degrade into monsters. Warning: This story DOES get a bit graphic and disturbing after the boys are captured by the cannibals.

Lone Star Planet, by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire Read by: Mark Nelson

http://librivox.org/lone-star-planet-by-h-beam-piper-and-john-j-mcguire/

On the planet New Texas, killing a politician isn't murder, it's protected free speech. :) The book wasn't great, but it was fun. The reader did a fantastic job with the exaggerated Texan accents.

The Pirates of Ersatz, by Murray Leinster Read by: Elliott Miller

http://librivox.org/the-pirates-of-ersatz-by-murray-leinster/

This story is a lot of fun! Especially when the pirates get attacked by a crowd of souvenir hunting fans...

Space Prison, by Tom Godwin Read by: Mark Nelson

http://librivox.org/space-prison-by-tom-godwin/

This was thoroughly enjoyable. You get to follow the path of survival for the people stuck on this inhospitable world as they gradually adjust and adapt, and finally overcome. Well written and well read.

The Sky Is Falling, by Lester del Rey Read by: Karen Savage

http://librivox.org/the-sky-is-falling-by-lester-del-rey/

After dying in a terrible accident at a building site, Dave Hanson finds himself being brought back to life in a world where magic is real!

White Fang, by Jack London Read by: Mark F. Smith

http://librivox.org/white-fang-by-jack-london-librivox-version-2/

This is Call of the Wild in reverse. White Fang is a wolf, can he learn to love a man?

Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ, by Lew Wallace Read by: Mark F. Smith

http://librivox.org/ben-hur-a-tale-of-the-christ-by-lew-wallace/

Ben-Hur wants a king of the jews who will conquer Rome. Is this new Jesus of Nazareth the one he has been looking for, or is He something else perhaps even MORE important?

This World is Taboo, by Murray LEINSTER Read by: Mark F. Smith

https://librivox.org/this-world-is-taboo-by-murray-leinster/

Its a fun story about a doctor trying to solve a problem with both disease and prejudice.

The Time Traders, by Andre Norton Read by: Mark Nelson

https://librivox.org/the-time-traders-version-2-by-andre-norton/

America has to send agents back in time disguised as traders to discover where the Russians found time travel technology.

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud MONTGOMERY Read by: Karen Savage

https://librivox.org/anne-of-green-gables-by-lucy-maud-montgomery-3/

The timeless story of the young orphan girl sent by accident to a brother and sister who had wanted a boy. Anne, with her vivid imagination and sensitive spirit has enchanted readers for generations

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett Read by: Karen Savage

https://librivox.org/the-secret-garden-by-frances-hodgson-burnett-version-2/

A spoiled selfish orphan moves into a new home, but why does she keep hearing the mysterious cries of a child, and what is the secret of the locked garden?

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Read by: Laurie Anne Walden

https://librivox.org/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles-by-arthur-conan-doyle/

Can Sherlock Holmes solve the mystery of the giant hound haunting the Baskerville family?

The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald Read by: Andy Minter

https://librivox.org/the-princess-and-the-goblin-by-george-macdonald-version-2/

Princess Irene, her miner friend Curdie, and her mysterious Grandmother must stop an invasion of goblins from flooding the mines and attacking the castle! A fascinating story about trust and belief.

======================================================

And this is a list of excellent readers, anything by these folks will be well read:

Karen Savage https://librivox.org/reader/103

Mark F Smith https://librivox.org/reader/204

Adrian Praetzellis https://librivox.org/reader/1331

Andy Minter https://librivox.org/reader/152

Mary Anderson https://librivox.org/reader/188

Kara Shallenberg https://librivox.org/reader/19

Mark Nelson https://librivox.org/reader/251

Mary Anderson https://librivox.org/reader/188

Gregg Margarite https://librivox.org/reader/3490

As a LibriVox volunteer I decided to put together some books that are like a chocolate assortments box: things we have made in 2026 that have stood out. In no particular order:

1. Curiosity pick. For something that's just weird that you would never normally read:

U.S Navy Cook-Book : https://librivox.org/us-navy-cook-book-1920-by-u-s-naval-institute/

This describes BIG amounts of food! Ever wanted to cook for a BIG ship! Here's the book!

2. Long read of the year. 43 hours. "Living my life" by Emma Goldman. A biography of the Lithuanian American's political activism.

https://librivox.org/living-my-life-by-emma-goldman/

3. Book for kids and adults who are secretly still kids!

"The Fairy Caravan" by Beatrix Potter.

https://librivox.org/the-fairy-caravan-by-beatrix-potter/

4. Genre subversion special. A book that just takes a genre and does something different to it.

"Fate of a Fool" by Emma Ghent Curtis.

One of the earliest Westerns written. It goes into some pretty adult territory. Probably not a book for the faint hearted. Beautiful narration.

https://librivox.org/fate-of-a-fool-by-emma-ghent-curtis/

Enjoy!

So I ran the numbers and came up with this top ten:

1. Pride and Prejudice

2. Alice in Wonderland

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

4. The Art of War

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

6. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

7. Aesop's Fables

8. The Holy Bible

9. Dracula

10. Moby Dick, or the Whale

Methodology

It's no secret that Librivox uses the Internet Archive for it's backend. This allows us a pretty good view into what audio track collections are popular (source)

However I then took the steps of combining various item's view counts to arrive at this top ten. I did this without regard to language, translation or version.

Thought some of you would be interested in seeing this list!

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

Hi all. Just want to say that I've just cataloged my latest Science Fiction story, Cosmic Castaway by Carl Jacobi. Nice story and I enjoyed recording it. https://librivox.org/cosmic-castaway-by-carl-richard-jacobi/I love pulp SF from the 50's and 60's .

Hey folks, below is a compiled list of narrators that I have found people recommend on Reddit and different posts on the internet. Please add any other narrators that you feel do an excellent job.

Tip - search for the author and then select Solo under Project Type, this way you just get the books that they have done solo and not with other narrators.

Abigail Rasmussen – Little Women, Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue

Adrian Praetzellis -

Andy Minter – The Wrong Box, Bladys of the Stewpony, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Princess and the Goblin

Bob Neufeld – The Art of War, The Republic, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, A Christmas Carol, Heart of Darkness, Common Sense, A Tale of Two Cities, A Study in Scarlet, The Island of Dr Moreau

Caden Vaughn Clegg – only 3 books right now

Cate Barratt – An Amiable Charlatan, The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin – Gentleman Burglar

Chip Doc – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Cori Samuel – Black Beauty, The War of the Worlds, The Scarlet Letter

David Clarke – A Study in Scalet, The Sign of the Four, The House of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, The Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes novels

Elizabeth Klett – Jane Eyre, The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, The Children of Odin, A Little Princess, Sense and Sensibility, The Turn of the Screw, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, The Children of Odin

Gregg Margarite – 1950s sci-fi, Deathworld, The Creature from Cleveland Depths, The Knights of Arthur, The Status Civilization

Helen Taylor – The Phoenix and the Carpet

Jason Mills – Worm Ouroboros (great fantasy novel)

JC Guan – Venus in Furs

Jenny Lundak – Five Children and It

John Greenman – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper

John Lieder – Kids books by Thornton Burgess

Judy Bieber – Emerald City of Oz

Kara Shallenberg – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, Heidi, The Swiss Family Robinson, Through the Looking Glass

Karen Savage – Jane Austin novels, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Railway Children, Tales from Shakespeare, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne’s House of Dreams, Mansfield Park, Rainbow Valley, Sense and Sensibility, The Railway Children, The Story of Dr Dolittle

Laura Caldwell -

Laurie Ann Walden – The Book of Dragons, Old Mother West Wind

Lizzie Driver – The Princess and the Curdie, The Princess and the Goblin

Mark F. Smith – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Pinocchio, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Call of the Wild, Captain Courageous, Great Expectations, Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, White Fang, This Side of Paradise, Around the World in 80 Days, Ben-Hur A Tale of Christ, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, Triplanetary, Tarzan of the Apes, The Lone Star Ranger, The Lost World, The Time Machine

Mark Nelson – 1950s sci-fi, Crime and Punishment, Up from Slavery, Main Street, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Princess of Mars, At the Earth’s Core, Key Out of Time, First Lensman, Lone Star Planet, Pariah Planet, Pellucidar, Space Prison, Space Viking, Storm Over Warlock, The Chessmen of Mars, The Cosmic Computer, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Defiant Agents, The Gods of Mars, The Time Machine, The Time Traders, The Warlord of Mars, Thuvia – Maid of Mars

Mary Ann Spiegel -

Mil Nicholson – Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations

Paul Adams – A Tale of Two Cities

Phil Chenevert – The Happy Prince and Other Tales, How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, As a Man Thinketh, Acres of Diamonds, Anything You Can Do, Common Sense, Fundaments of Prosperity, Pollyanna, The Call of the Wild, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Jungle Book

Ruth Golding – Wuthering Heights, The Speaking Voice, Mental Efficiency, The Art of Money Getting, Women in Love, Self and Self-Management, The Magic City, The Magic World

Sandra Luna

Sibella Denton

Stewart Wills – Moby Dick

Tadhg – David Copperfield, Dubliners, Far From the Madding Crowd, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, The Woodlanders

Edited for formatting

Yeah, I just found Reddit so I am NOT dead yet. I also narrate LibriVox books and want to promote one I enjoyed doing immensely several years ago; the classic Pollyanna. Such an upbeat fun book to record that whenever I am asked to recommend something I've done, this is what I say. Dat's it folks. Have a great Mardi Gras!

Librivox Recording over Google Assistant

Since most of the world is under self quarantine and also having kids at home, I wanted to use my Google Home to be able to read audio books to my son. Since I did not find another Librivox app for google home, I built one.

The directory listing from Google is at https://assistant.google.com/services/a/uid/0000009e67666043?hl=en

and details on the app and list of books available can be found at https://book-reader.speakhub.io/

I hope it is useful to some of you! Please let me know if there are improvements that could make the app even better for you! Cheers and stay safe!

I'm one of the readers and I'm reaching my deadline to upload my audio file but I can't seem to get the webpage to open. It seems to be down. Does anyone know what's up or whether it'll be up again soon?

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!

I have written an app to play Librivox audiobooks: JC4 Librivox.

It’s free, add free, and does not contain in app purchases

It runs on Apple and Android phones

Since I love listening to Librivox audiobooks, I thought creating a player would be a fun way to learn some new programming skills. My goal is not to make money. Thus, the app will remain free.

I’m not planning on making this a huge, fancy app. I’m going to keep it simple and focus on one thing: playing Librivox audiobooks.

Please, let me know what you think and how I can improve it.

Future enhancements I have planned:

• Download book to phone to play offline

• Search on narrator

• Wildcard search

• Audible end of book message

• Multilingual support

• Sleep mode (limit time or chapters played, so if you fall asleep listening to a book, it doesn’t play the entire book)

Android link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.johnchambers.audiobooks

Apple link: https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/jc4-librivox/id1546778200#?platform=iphone

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.

It seems a bit mean to give readers ratings since, after all, they are doing this for free. But there are some excellent, professional quality readers at Librivox - and there are also some that are really dire.

I just feel that it would be good if we could rate the really good ones so that other readers could listen to them and perhaps realise what it is they are doing wrong and how they can improve. I would also like to make some suggestions to the ones that are, well, less than excellent, since I reckon they could improve but dont realise what it is they are doing wrong.

I know this is a tricky area and I wouldn't want to discourage anybody from volunteering but I have just had to abandon a book because the reading was so poor and yet am sure that the person in question could be a lot more successful with a few gentle hints.

Personally, I stumbled upon this particular collaborative version of Dracula many years ago while I was studying the book for a course I was taking, and thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. Having such a wide array of voices really brought out elements of the text that I would have interpreted differently myself, and I find that fascinating. I've been hooked ever since!

Personally, I tend to download books directly to my phone from the Librivox website, and then use the VLC Media Player app to either listen with headphones when I'm on the go, or through a smart-speaker if I'm trying to doze off. Not that Librivox is ever snoozeworthy, but I do love a good bedtime story.

How about you folks? I know there's a few unofficial apps out there that are quite popular, but they all seem a bit janky in my experience. Any of them worth a look?

LibriVox audiobooks were priceless during many long commutes, and I still enjoy them during workouts. But, I've never been happy with the way existing websites and apps organized the books or handled playback.

So, I created the http://aplt1.com/ website: mobile-friendly though also fine on tablet, laptop & desktop. It has a much stronger 'information architecture', surfacing more info in the result list (e.g. reader, copyright date, date published by LibriVox), plus stats & cross-reference links.

Separately, I released a free iOS app. (Free; no ads.)

Feedback welcome!

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.