LibriVox Audio Books Reviews

by Dlwill53

These public domain books are read by readers with vastly varying skills. Most of what I’ve heard is pretty amateurish, but there are some very good contributions. The jewel in crown, of course, is that the service makes so many great books available to audio readers. You just have to do a bit of searching to find a combination of good book/good reader.

LibriVoxAudioBooks is moderately intuitive and a bit glitchy. Most disconcerting of all, though, is that payment to remove ads does...nothing. The ads are annoying, at best, and there seems no way to really communicate effectively with the apps designer.

Ultimately, though, I’m an avid listener of books, and this gives me another tool in my audio book tool box.

by Veggiesaurous

Firstly, I LOVE LibriVoxAudioBooks! Thank you for making it possible for me to revisit old classic books and find new ones through your app.
Lately, though, it’s been such a chore to open LibriVoxAudioBooks and continue with a book. If I don’t happen to finish a chapter before closing LibriVoxAudioBooks , it will take me back to the beginning of the chapter when I’m ready to start listening again. It’s very difficult sometimes to fast forward and find my place! This is a relatively new problem (over the last month, I’d say).
Is there anyway to fix this? Is there a setting I inadvertently turned on?
Thank you for a timely answer!
I WILL change my rating to 5 stars when this is fixed!!

by Troisprenoms

This review is for LibriVoxAudioBooks (LibriVox is one of the best things on the modern internet). Playback and downloading works well. Search algorithm finds what you want most of the time (though having separate entries for different readings of the same book makes things more complicated than they need to be). The only serious problem is ads. Not that they exist. They’re infrequent and generally tasteful. It’s the VOLUME. The ads don’t seem to be scaled to the same volume as the books. Rather, whenever an ad plays there’s a large spike in volume and I’m inevitably startled if I’m wearing headphones. It’s particularly troublesome if you’re listening to a book to help you sleep.

by Inspired_Daily

I’ve used Librivox for a number of years, through undergrad and grad school, and have found it tremendously helpful as an English major. The voices help liven up the texts and make difficult works much easier to follow. More recently, however, I’ve been disappointed by the addition of advertisements at the end of chapters and such. While they could be much more intrusive, it’s still a disruption to the experience and overall nuisance. Luckily, you can work around them by tapping on the next chapter, but having to do so feels unnecessary. I wish they would have just stuck to having a small visual ad at the bottom of the page. A small matter, which most people probably don’t care about, but enough to make me go to other audio reading providers sometimes. That said, Librivox is still my go-to reader, and it is very helpful overall.

by Tzweb

I love LibriVoxAudioBooks and all the volunteers who make it so valuable. There are so many great books on here and many of the volunteer readers do a fantastic job even doing different voices for each of the books characters. Because I work for at least 10 hours a day mostly driving heavy equipment I have lots of time to listen to something but precious little time to read even though I love books. LibriVoxAudioBooks has made it possible for me to enjoy literature without sacrificing family time and other after work activities.

by Alicia804

LibriVox used to be the perfect app for free audiobooks, and as a English graduate student, I still use it daily for reading. However, I’m greatly disappointed by the new app update, specifically the changes to the speed settings. You used to be able to change the speed and see how fast you were setting it, but now it’s just a sliding scale with no numbers. The old version also allowed you to go much faster than x2 speed, which honestly is necessary with some of the slower readers (I think the old version went to x2.5 or x3 speed). If they could improve the speed controls I’m sure I’m not the only one who would greatly appreciate it!

by 2timtutor@gmail

I love LibriVoxAudioBooks because there is so much variety and it's all free. I love that it picks up where I left off and I can get there with one click of the resume button. I have only had 1 book out of the dozen I've downloaded that had ads and they were very short and in between chapters so it didn't bother the flow of the book. The content is so diverse. I am part of a smaller Christian denomination but they have multiple books written by pioneers of my church. Truly amazing. Keep up the good work.

by Jimexextreme

Every single article,book, script, translated and read for every person seeking to know more, want more - who wants to awaken and remember all the information that we forgotten. All for free - use it use it use it !!!! it's here for you as it is for me - I hope this review attracts your attention enough to waken the explorer in you and listen to all this free information over and over until it empowers you and takes you to the top ! I will see you all there !

by Fnu Lnu, Jr.

I’ve been using the LibriVox App to listen to various books for a few months now. One of the things I appreciate is the wide variety of books about historical events and or people. One of the things that I like is that once I find a subject that I like, I can then search for other books that are similar. Which is much much better than LibriVoxAudioBooks forcing me to look at books that LibriVoxAudioBooks thinks I might like.
Thank You for LibriVoxAudioBooks.

by Wallkidsrock

I LOVE LibriVoxAudioBooks! It’s awesome! It has SO many classic books and all for free! And from a ton of really GREAT readers to! Classic books are my favorite but they’re so hard to find now-a-days. And with this I can listen to them anytime anywhere! It’s awesome. And there are books by my favorite authors that o didn’t even know existed! For example did you know that the author of little woman (Louisa may Alcott) wrote a TON more amazing books! I totally recommend LibriVoxAudioBooks and make sure to listen to Louisa May Alcotts forgotten classics!

by Sestrachky

I used & loved LibriVoxAudioBooks for years. After not having an apple device for a while I just rediscovered it and I’m so excited (I think you can use it through their website as well though). It’s easier than overdrive because I don’t have to worry about having a time limit and I think it’s a bit more user friendly too. Also great selection for free, especially as I love the classic authors and have found some really unique and educational stuff too. Five stars all the way.

by Natalie_cae

LibriVoxAudioBooks is very useful I have enjoyed hours of stories for a while. Many aspects of LibriVoxAudioBooks I enjoy but recently they added recorded advertisements which I think harms LibriVoxAudioBooks.
They are really loud and jarring. I often listen to stories to sleep but the ads are unpredictable and at a different volume than the stories and invariably startle me. I really hope they change this aspect. It has been a really harmful update to LibriVoxAudioBooks and makes it less pleasant to use.

by 😛😎😭

It’s amazing 😉 I mean I can read all my favorite books on audio plus they are all free the readers are AMAZING and there are no glitches for me it only takes about a minute to download your books 📚 I use it daily and it is something I will never forget about I went throw so many free trials and they where not even good books but I wanted something free so I cancelled all my trial and got this with amazing books for FREE get LibriVoxAudioBooks !!!!

by Mamadukes50

I absolutely love LibriVoxAudioBooks! I have arthritis, very bad, in my phone, so I need to use audiobooks. I do, however, have one huge complaint! I set a timer, so that I can slip off, to sleep, each night. I understand the need to advertise, and have seen many, included with the pictures of books. I don’t mind that at all! But now I find, that as I drop off to sleep, a VERY loud and intrusive, pop up, and wake me. So instead of using LibriVoxAudioBooks every night, I must use a library audiobook. Very disappointing!

by Mel3225

I absolutely love LibriVoxAudioBooks! It is simple to use and really nice for when you love reading but have too many things to do to just sit down and read. The one hiccup I’ve experienced is that I keep getting the notification that I need to connect to the internet in order to listen...but I’m already connected. So it’s kind of frustrating at times. But other than that, LibriVoxAudioBooks is flawless! Even with the problem, it is definitely one of my favorites!

by Sumney Girl

I am truly enjoying LibriVoxAudioBooks. For the past week I’ve been downloading books and listening to them when I go to bed. I honestly believe I am sleeping better since I started this. Perhaps it’s because our mother used to read to us before we went to sleep at night. As a child it made me feel safe and content. Whatever it is I am thankful that my sister told me about her experience with audiobooks which peeked my curiosity enough that I went looking for apps and found this one. Thank you.

by Hummm,well

If you want to listen to great literature from the past and don’t have the time to read, this is a wonderful application. You can pull up documents of historical and religious significance. You can listen while they are read to you and you were able to do another activity while you’re listening.
I have especially enjoyed listening to William Bradford‘s record of Plymouth colony. I highly recommend it. You have no idea of the myriad obstacles the Pilgrims overcame until you’ve listened to it.

by Master Phish

I really love how LibriVoxAudioBooks has grown since I first started using it. I have a love for Germanic folklore especially core mythology books like the Eddas and the Sagas. When I first started using LibriVoxAudioBooks they had literally two audio books on Norse and Germanic myth. One was awesome, the other...not so much. But now there are quite a few more including readings of both Eddas as well as a few sagas and some are in more than one language. The readings are well done and easy to understand. I am super impressed with the progress of this project so far and I look forward to seeing how it continues to grow.

by Ski133815

I have used LibriVox for the past three years and am always consistently blown away by the skill of some of these amateur readers. I also have Audible, and with both combined I feel like there is always something interesting and new to experience. LibriVox's best feature is the wide, free use of public domain writings. The search for good readers is rewarding, albeit different than Audible. The difference is that with LibriVox it doesn't cost me a cent. Excellent. The mobile app is very straightforward, and in a way offers even more options than my subscription, in particular the playback speeds.

by Vagabonage

Large library. Most of the recordings sound fine to me, and the organization of LibriVoxAudioBooks is impressive for a free download. Really, the only detraction for me is the ads, but they have to make money somehow.. That being said, they are relatively minimal and once you get your book going, its not bad at all. I am a person that will instantly uninstall if the ads are overwhelming and give a 1 star, so that should tell you my thought on the matter. Ill put a book on at work and maybe hear 1-2 ads per 8 hour shift. Will definitely be paying for the premium version, but not because I feel like I need to to enjoy LibriVoxAudioBooks . More because Libravox is a breath of fresh air, and I want to support.