The Company of Books

For as long as I’ve heard descriptions of what it is like to drive across the country, and particularly to drive across the Great Plains, I’ve heard the same word repeated:  boring.  I like driving on the open road, as long as I’m well rested and have a healthy vehicle and am going somewhere I want to go.  I also like driving through open country.  It is like a meditation.  Like a fresh wind blowing through my head.  I live in a place where there are no endless vistas of wide, wide space like you get in the middle of the country, and so it makes a refreshing change.  I don’t think I’ll be bored, especially since it will all be new to me. 

But just in case I feel the need for some entertainment while driving (other than tunes of course, which are not entertainment but are the staff of life for long road trips), I wanted to have an audio book or two available to listen to.  The problem with audio books is that they are expensive.  I’ve been toying with the idea of trying Audible, and I even downloaded the app to my phone.  Playing downloaded mp3 files from a small device makes it much simpler than wrangling stacks of CD’s.  And if you bought a lot of audio books you’d definitely save money by signing up with Audible.  But it is still expensive, and it is based on a monthly fee/membership format in which the basic level of membership essentially gets you one book a month (unless you want one of the more expensive books which cost more credits than you are allocated per month at the basic level, meaning you’d have to save up credits).  I could just sign up for one month and then cancel my membership (and endure the sales pitch with boxes of chocolates, hearts, kisses and discounts designed to try and keep me hooked in).   But I guess I just wasn’t ready to spend $14.95 for an audio book without first trying to find a cheaper alternative.

Enter LibriVox.  I found out about it while reading a review of Audible.  The author suggested that for people who really want audio book content for free, LibriVox is one resource.  It is a volunteer staffed organization which creates audio recordings of books in the public domain.  It’s the audio version of the Gutenberg Project, and in fact that’s where they get most of their content from.
Because these are volunteer readers, it isn’t like listening to professionally recorded audio books.  And because all the books are those written before 1923, you aren’t going to be getting the latest thrilling best seller.  But it’s free, and it is a labor of love by people who give their time and the work of their vocal chords to make books available for free to people who need or want them.  You can’t get much nobler than that, in my humble opinion.

I’ve downloaded a couple of books so far.  You go to www.librivox.org, click the link to Our Catalog, search for the book you want, and then click the link if you locate it.  There will be options for individual files (perhaps corresponding to individual chapters, but not always), and also a link to a zip file of the entire book.  If you select the zip file, it will download to your phone which probably puts it in a file called “Downloads.”  Open that file and select “extract,” and the files will be extracted to a folder (in the case of my Motorola Droid Bionic, still in the Download folder) with the name of the book on it.  You then open that folder with the extracted files, and select the first file, and it will open a player.  You can run it through your car stereo if you have an aux input, or listen direct from the phone.  You can also select the other option on the site of playing individual mp3 files which appear to stream rather than download.

I’ve listened to only quick snips to make sure I’ve got it working.  The reader seems competent, with a no-nonsense, plain reading style.  So far I’ve downloaded Tom Ossington’s Ghost and The Haunted Bookshop.  The Haunted Bookshop is the sequel to Parnassus on Wheels, a charming story about an unmarried woman living with her brother on a farm.  She ends up buying the fanciful wagon of a travelling bookseller and all his stock, leaving her apron behind and taking off to bookselling adventure.  I found Parnassus on Wheels in a batch of books from my late aunt, who was a voracious reader, and who put into my hands when I was a child a number of my very favorite books.  Parnassus was a quick, delightful read, and I’d been meaning to read The Haunted Bookshop.  I’m really glad to have it as one of my free audio books in case I find myself needing the company of books while on this long journey.

I can still get an Audible membership if I find I want something newer.  But for now I’m liking the idea of listening to old classics I might never have found the time for otherwise.