LiteralSystems publishes classic literary works as free mp3 audio books under the Creative Commons License. What sets there recordings apart from others is that they utilize paid performers to create the recordings. Due to the cost of using paid help the selection is limited but the recordings are all of the highest quality.
I like what the site admin says about why he uses paid performers:
On average an hour long audio book requires about four or five hours of work on the part of the actor to make it good. Consider, during the recording stage, the actors also have to deal with the director (yours truly) calling “…one more time.” from the next room; this process tends to be more work than most volunteers want to put in. But, because the director (yours truly) likes the results better, in the last two years, in this fashion, we have moved largely away from working with volunteer performers to a paid performers situation.
Below is a list of the titles that are currently available:
- The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
- An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
- The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood
- Excerpt from Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- The Upper Berth by Francis Marion Crawford
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm
- Travelling Musicians, The by the Brothers Grimm
- donaco de la Magoj, la by O Henry
- The Gift of the Magi by O Henry
- The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
- The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling
- Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
- Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
- To Build A Fire by Jack London
- The Heathen by Jack London
- Saves You Time by Kendall McCook
- The Highwayman by Alfred Noyez
- The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar A. Poe
- Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- On the Decay of the Art of Lying by Mark Twain
- 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- The Red Room by H.G.Wells
- The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
This post was originally published on my old audiobook blog site.
