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Tasha
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Feb 09, 2013 10:54AM
I've been listening to plays on Librivox recently--both Pride & Prejudice and The School for Scandal star Elizabeth Klett and they're very fun to listen to.
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Tasha wrote: "I've been listening to plays on Librivox recently--both Pride & Prejudice and The School for Scandal star Elizabeth Klett and they're very fun to listen to."Oh! I wish I had known that. I just read "The School for Scandal" this past week!
The White Company, by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, and The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. All great readers.
MichelleCH wrote: "I enjoyed The Woman in White"Excellent book. I read it a while ago in paper format. You can easily see how it was written as installments for a magazine. I read that it was the first novel ever published. The Moonstone, another of Wilkie's novels, is on my TBR list.
Diane wrote: "I read that it was the first novel ever published..."The first mystery novel ever published.
Hj wrote: "Diane wrote: "I read that it was the first novel ever published..."The first mystery novel ever published."
Ah, thanks for the info!
Hello Everyone,I haven't been in this thread for a while and so I don't know if this is old news, but here it is anway:
For some time, Mark Douglas Nelson's home page links in Librivox were not working. Now some (but not all) of the links on Librivox are working again, and point to different pages on his website depending on Librivox topic (or something else I haven't figured out yet).
At any rate, the working links I've found point to these pages:
SciPodBooks.com - Free Books narrated by Mark Nelson
SciPodBooks.Com - Weekly Podcasts narrated by Mark Nelson
Mark Douglas Nelson Home Page
If you catalog your books in a database the way I do, the homepage has a neat photo for his "Author" entry in your catalog.
Enjoy,
Alan Mintaka
Fixed. If someone had told us, it would have been fixed before ;). All links should now be to http://www.markdouglasnelson.com.
Wow this is great! I now have a LONG list of books to listen to. librivox is great for me because I have been trying to re-read all of the classics as an adult.I have a question tough...
What player do you all use on your PC for audiobooks? I don't really care for itunes and don't like using a different program for each way I purchase or rent books (ie Overdrive for library books, audible for one gotten from them). I have tried a variety of other aps and they don't seem to keep my place when I log off or turn the PC off.
For my android phone I like Double Twist and Wimamp the best so far.
Thank you for your responses
Shawn wrote: "What player do you all use on your PC for audiobooks? I don't really care for itunes and don't like using a different program for each way I purchase or rent books..."I don't use my PC to listen to audiobooks. Regardless of format (Audible AA, WMV, etc) I convert them to MP3 files, download them to a Sansa Fuze, and burn them to MP3 CDs. I use the Sansa Fuze for listening while I walk and/or work around the house. In my car I use an old-fashioned Pioneer CD/MP3 player/receiver. Both devices remember where they were when I pause or power them down for the day.
Librivox audiobooks are already in MP3 format, so I don't have to do any conversions with them.
The only audiobook format that gives me a little trouble with this method is Audible'a AA format. I used to run Audible Manager to burn the AA files to virtual audio CDs using Nero, then rip the virtual CDs to MP3 files using freeware such as Audiograbber or FreeRipMP3. Unfortunately Audible arbitrarily dropped support for Nero in the Audible Manager a few months ago.
Rather than be forced to use iTunes, which I hate, I just stopped using Audible Manager. Instead I run Nero Express as a standalone program and load Audible's AA files from there. It's actually easier than running Nero through the Audible Manager. You don't have to "activate devices", or any of that nonsense. I would have done it that way from the start if I had known how straightforward it was.
I did sugguest to Audible that they would lose me as a customer if they made it impossible to burn AA files to Audio CDs using Nero this way. After all, what I do with the AA files for private listening after I purchase them is my business, not Audible's.
The method described above would also work with VLC Media Player on a PC to play MP3 files ripped from Audible AA files.
Happy listening,
Alan Mintaka
Alan wrote: "After all, what I do with the AA files for private listening after I purchase them is my business, not Audible's."Seconded. I'm burning the audiobooks to cds, then ripping those cds into mp3s. Huge waste of cds and time. Inconveniences the heck out of me, but doesn't do anything to pirates.
I'm going to give your method a shot. I did have a program that converted .aa files directly to mp3s but that method stopped working more than a year ago.
Your humble moderator doesn't mind some topic drift (engaging in it himself often enough), but this thread is really for Librivox-related issues, both the books themselves and technical issues specific to that site. Thanks!
John wrote: "Your humble moderator doesn't mind some topic drift (engaging in it himself often enough), but this thread is really for Librivox-related issues, both the books themselves and technical issues spec..."Sorry, Big John. I've taken it offline with PMs to J to discuss details.
Ruth wrote: "Fixed. If someone had told us, it would have been fixed before ;). All links should now be to http://www.markdouglasnelson.com."Actually the broken link was reported back in October 2012 in this Goodreads topic. Here's the original post:
Good Librivox Books - October 10 2012, Mark Douglas Nelson
Granted it was a pretty obscure one-line reference:
"Each of these (Librivox) titles has a link to his website of freebies, but last time I checked it was broken (sigh)."
There's another reference to it in a post I made later on the same day:
The web.mac.com server appears to be down. Let's hope Mark Nelson is in the process of moving his website....
It's easy to see how it fell through the cracks, because I didn't address it directly to any of the folks at Librivox. I'll keep that in mind if I have any other problems with Librivox author links.
Happy listening,
Alan Mintaka
Yes, please do - we have a forum for error reporting. We are currently going through a major software upgrade, and such issues should be easier to fix in the future.
Ruth wrote: "Yes, please do - we have a forum for error reporting. We are currently going through a major software upgrade, and such issues should be easier to fix in the future."Cool. I'll report such things on that forum in the future.
I keep toying with the idea of narrating public domain titles myself (I have a few in mind) but haven't gotten around to setting up a little "sound studio" with a cheap mic and a solid door to keep the cats from interfering with the narrations. I must get my old derriere in motion. There are so many titles I would like to hear done in different voices, such as Off on a Comet, by Jules Verne.
The only thing is, when I listen to my own voice in a recording, it gives me the creeps. Maybe Jules Verne is the wrong choice. Poe and Lovecraft might be better from a "creeps" standpoint.
Happy Listening, Ruth!
Alan Mintaka
Everybody hates his own voice at first. It sounds different from the 'inside' of one's head. After a while one gets to love it (or like it, at least). Now I positively shall leave this thread to the listeners ;).
John wrote: "Your humble moderator doesn't mind some topic drift (engaging in it himself often enough), but this thread is really for Librivox-related issues, both the books themselves and technical issues spec..."Sorry, John. I'm not sure how I got off topi..ooh something shiny!
Diane wrote: "MichelleCH wrote: "I enjoyed The Woman in White"Excellent book. I read it a while ago in paper format. You can easily see how it was written as installments for a magazine. I read that it was ..."
So you listened on Librivox to The Woman in White? I ended up abandoning it because in about the last third of the book, the narrator switched to a woman whose accent was so thick, I'm thinking maybe Welsh but I really don't know anything, that I could not undertsand her. I had a lot of time into it too. Maybe if I see a copy at a book sale....
Diane - If you go to Librivox they normally have the PDF of the book itself so you can get it there (this is done so the volunteer readers have it). If for some reason it is not there put the book name + PDF (or epub) in google since the book is in the public domain book it should pop up.I googled librovox and women in white and the page came up and it has the book there too...
http://librivox.org/the-woman-in-whit...
That page will also tell you who the readers are...you may be able to read the chapter of the narrator you couldn't understand and then go back to audio when other readers start up...
Every LibriVox book catalogue page has a link to the online text, if there is one. I am a little mystified about the narrator changing to someone with a thick accent, though. There are only a couple of hundred words read by non-native speakers, and they are very clear.
Ruth wrote: "Every LibriVox book catalogue page has a link to the online text, if there is one. I am a little mystified about the narrator changing to someone with a thick accent, though. There are only a coupl..."I am sure she is a native English speaker, but I am from the States, and if she was, as I suspected, from Wales, there could be a world of difference.
Oh, it was me then. But just plain old English - no regional accent at all. I am sorry you couldn't understand it.
It's been noted already, but I do like Jane Eyre as narrated by Elizabeth Klett. She gives a good performance, I think, and does the various voices well without being over-the-top.If I had a gripe against these as opposed to Audible's books, it's that each chapter has something like, "Chapter 21 of Jane Eyre. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Klett. Jane Eye by Charlotte Bronte; chapter 21." Twenty seconds, plus five or so buffer at the end of each chapter. I could have got that boilerplate at the beginning and end of the book and come away with the same info.
It just breaks up the flow of the narrative, that's all. Since Jane Eyre is the first LibriVox version I've heard, I'm not sure if this is peculiar to this book.
I saw a question about listening on PCs. I can't help there. But if you're looking to listening to these on iOS (iPhone, iPad, or iPod), try the app named "Audiobooks" by Cross Forward Consulting, LLC. On the main menu of that app there is a "Free Books" link. I'm not sure if it's the whole LibriVox catalog, but it certainly looks like it has all the books mentioned on this thread so far. HTH.
Oh, and I should make a note about English accents and Elizabeth Klett (of LibreVox's Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice v4, and many others found here: https://catalog.librivox.org/people_p...).First, this is no slight against Ms. Klett. I love what she's doing for LibriVox. Listening to Jane Eyre, though, it's pretty clear that she's not trying for particular regional accents. Maybe things were different in 1847, but Yorkshiremen have pretty standard northern accents. Klett's is more southern, I'm pretty sure.
And I could be wrong, but isn't at least one of the characters a Geordie? One of my favorite human beings in the world is a Geordie, but am I glad Elizabeth Klett stuck with a generic English accent! We Americans have to be able to understand the book, right? :-)
Anyway, people who love the peculiar differences will have to ignore a little. ...Or just chalk it up to 1847 and point out my ignorance. Whatever works.
Joshua -- that disclaimer is required to be inserted in every single part of every single Librivox book. You'll get used to it.
The point of it is that every reader has, for legal reasons, to release their recording into the Public Domain. Files can get separated, so it has to be recorded for every chapter. Soloists may now read a shortened disclaimer for 2nd and subsequent chapters, which in my view is far preferable. However, there is nothing to stop you stripping them out for your own use, if you wish (as, indeed, some unscrupulous vendors do in order to disguise the origin of our recordings, claim them for themselves, and make some cash. See Audible. If you had a devil emoticon, I would insert it here.)
I don't think they know about it... yet. I suspect they will soon.
Just to clarify...Audible SELLs librovox books? This is important to me since I sometimes BUY audio books that are in the public domain...(when I am feeling that I want a near perfect copy of the audio book)...and I was looking a purchasing some from audible now since they now link your kindle books to audible and you can go back and forth between reading and listening...perfect for those LONG classics.That would change the price I was willing to pay and what audio file I chose. I noticed on audible they have multiple recordings at multiple prices on some of the classics...for those of you who are interested in the Wispernet technology (link between book and audio book) some of these are on special now
Shawn wrote: "Just to clarify...Audible SELLs librovox books? This is important to me since I sometimes BUY audio books that are in the public domain..."Please see this thread on the LibriVox forum: https://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.... One of Mark Nelson's is on sale for $17.95 there (at Audible, I mean). He isn't best pleased either.
Wow!!! Amazing and then Audible puts their DRM software on it. I could see them selling the books for $5 or so and packaging it nicely but $18.00 that seems unethical. ...I was going to subscribe to them but now I don't know...
Shawn wrote: "Wow!!! Amazing and then Audible puts their DRM software on it. I could see them selling the books for $5 or so and packaging it nicely but $18.00 that seems unethical. ...I was going to subscribe but now I don't know..."As long as you know about this issue and are careful, you can avoid that pitfall with Audible.
I myself got suckered in (sort of - see below) on eBay before I knew Librivox existed. A seller calling himself Wyndham_Books is selling Librivox titles there.
Here's the thing about his business ethic though:
He does go the extra mile in terms of quality. His CDs have nicely printed labels and are in decent cases. They also aren't priced very high, $4.00 a pop.
In a case like that one, a buying decision could be made based on what you want for the end product. All the work of downloading, tagging (if the files need MP3 tags), and burning the files to CD is done for you, with trimmings in the form of very presentable disc labels.
Of course he also gets the disc art from LibriVox. But getting the jewel case art onto a disc template and printing it is another chore that he does for you. In fact I think he has one of those printers that prints the disc art right on the media, as opposed to a self-sticking label that's applied later. I sure can't tell if that's really the case. All I know is I tried to peel off the edge of one of those labels just to see if I could, and failed miserably.
Bottom line: well, it does cost him money to do what he does in terms of time, materials, and maintenance of his media printer. The prices are also somewhat reasonable considering the work he's doing. So I have mixed feelings about Wyndham_Books.
Audible is another matter. Their process is automated based on a mass-production business model, so it's very inexpensive for them to publish Librivox titles. In addition, adding their DRM software to public domain titles is just plain inexcusable.
As with Wyndham_Books, I weigh the good vs the bad. Obviously I'll never buy Librivox titles from Audible, at least not knowingly. If I later find out I've been had, I'll return it for a refund. Audible at least does that part right.
The good thing about Audible is that I can get pretty decent prices on copyrighted audiobooks. The deals are good enough that I won't trash them just because they try to slip in a public domain zinger now and then.
The way they'll lost me is if they ever make it impossible to burn their AA files to CDs using anything other than iTunes.
Meanwhile, I have a process in place to download and burn Librivox titles for myself, and so don't need Wyndham_Books to do the work for a fee. But I still think that he does at least work for the low price he gets for the titles.
With even more mental reverse peristaltic motion,
Alan Mintaka
I agree with you, Alan, but I was caught off-guard the first time I saw one of my recordings for sale on eBay. However, they are doing nothing illegal (although they should always state that the work is from LibriVox) and I'm sure that people who would love to have the recordings on CDs but don't know how to go about producing them find the low fees worth it.There's a saying on LibriVox that -- at first you get mad when you see your 'free' recordings being sold. Then you get over it and feel depressed if they aren't selling. :)
The Audible ones I have heard of are "published" by an independent producer. To be fair to Audible, I don't imagine that they know that they are LibriVox recordings. They have said in the past that they do not like to sell recordings that are available free elsewhere, though their policy may have changed since then. The Ebay CD sellers, as long as they ask a reasonable price (and the market seems to take care of that) are offering a service that LibriVox cannnot provide itself, so most LVers have no objection (and even welcome) that. We have also found that we recruit quite a few readers after they have purchased CDs on Ebay, so that is a good thing.
Ruth wrote: "....We have also found that we recruit quite a few readers after they have purchased CDs on Ebay, so that is a good thing. ..."Myself included. That's exactly how I found out about Librivox. Although Wyndham_Books erases the "public domain" disclaimer (at least on the titles I bought), a search on the readers' names took me right to the Librivox website.
After that I went into my book catalog database and changed the publisher from "Wyndham Books" to "Librivox". Then I got busy downloading titles right from the source.
Happy listening and reading,
Alan Mintaka
Claire wrote: "..There's a saying on LibriVox that -- at first you get mad when you see your 'free' recordings being sold. Then you get over it and feel depressed if they aren't selling. :) ..."You might be able to get consolation if the folks who manage the Librivox website are using metrics that include tracking the number of downloads. Those numbers in addition to comments by posters here and in the Librivox forum would probably give you a more accurate feel for the popularity of your readings than the attempts to sell them by the unscrupulous guys.
Suffering from a serious mental eating disorder,
Alan Mintaka
Yes, we have an idea of numbers of downloads. LibriVox passed the milestone of a billion downloads last year. The top 5 have over a million downloads each, and 50 have over 400,000. We have dozens of thank you emails every week, too, so we know we are appreciated.:)
What Ruth said. :) Not only do we have the stats for LibriVox but there have been many kind people who have left lovely feedback. :)
Claire: you are aware that Librivox specifically disallows negative feedback on its site?
John wrote: "Claire: you are aware that Librivox specifically disallows negative feedback on its site?"Librivox doesn't "disallow" negative feedback per se. Instead, they qualify the method for reporting it. This is a quote from the FAQ/Feedback thread in their forum:
"If you have negative feedback, please send it to info AT librivox DOT org and the administrators will see how best to deal with it, and possibly pass on some points to the reader or raise a specific issue in the forum, if appropriate. Negative feedback posted directly to the forum may be edited or deleted (see our Forum Policies page.)"
This doesn't quite jive with the info on the Forum Policies Page, but it does provide at least one outlet for negative feedback.
Retentively,
Alan Mintaka
I've seen a pretty fair share of not just negative but nasty feedback for LibriVox recordings, John. These are the comments left on the Internet Archive page for specific titles but they are definitely there. What is posted on the LibriVox forums is another matter. There are rules about that due to people feeling they aren't good enough to narrate, etc., but on the Internet Archive page for each title, it's pretty wide open. The LV forum rules do not apply.
I admit I don't understand what the term "Internet Archive Page" means
John wrote: "I admit I don't understand what the term "Internet Archive Page" means"Hey Big John,
It's here: Librivox Internet Archive Page
Back when they were transferring to a new server, this was the place they suggested to go for downloads and other info during the interim.
Servingly,
Alan Mintaka
I apologize, John. I tend to forget that most users download or listen from the LibriVox page. Internet Archive is our host and I usually download or listen from their pages. Perfect, Alan!
Lee Ann
The Internet Archive has always hosted our completed recordings. There is no way LibriVox could afford to host them itself, as effectively it has no money and even the upkeep costs of the working server are quite a problem. Each LibriVox book catalogue page therefore also has a link to a page on the Internet Archive, where you can listen with an in-browser player, and (as with all Internet Archive items) leave a review. As such reviews are anonymous, they can be unnecessarily brutal in my view and sometimes downright wrong, but that's life.
The policy about negative feedback applies to the LibriVox forums. New readers (and even some old hands) can be so discouraged by the kind of flaming one sometimes sees on the Internet that they would pretty soon stop recording. We all improve with practice, but if you are knocked down at the beginning, you won't carry on long enough to improve. Most of us cringe a bit at our early recordings.
Audio quality is a different matter. If reported to us sensitively, we will attempt to rectify matters. This applies largely to recordings in the earlier days of LibriVox, when the noise-cleaning of recording software was not as effective as it is now. These days we try strenuously to help readers to achieve the best audio quality possible.
I admit that I have been fully complicit here, but we have strayed from the thread topic of discussing actual books themselves. As a moderator, I feel it's okay to mention if one doesn't care for a particular book, or moderator, in this thread, without piling on. Fortunately, I've never, ever seen a group member do that!
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