Free sources of audio books and e-books

A non-comprehensive list...

National Academies Press. Articles produced by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. While at first glance, this appears to be an online bookstore, many of the publications are available as free PDF downloads and/or audio files.

LibriVox Audio books, read by volunteers. Quality may vary, of course, but it is quite a comprehensive selection.

Gutenberg project View 30,000 free online books. It is not too hard to find a particular author or category, but it is a little tricky once you get to the download option, as there are several options, including "HTML," which downloads the book in a format that looks like a Web page, or "Plain Text," which downloads the book in what looks like a plain typewritten site. There are also several options once you choose HTML or Plain Text, including "main site," "mirror site" and "P2." It is easiest to just click "main site."

Radio Lovers Old time radio shows for listening online or download. Some particular episodes are a little hard to find, but a pretty comprehensive list of titles. You should be able to listen online without downloading any special software or registering for an account.

Radio drama revivalsModern dramatizations of old radio programs. You can listen online without downloading special software.

Bozeman Public Library / Montana Library2Go If you have a Bozeman (or other Montana city) library card, you can access free audio books that can play on your computer or on an iPod or other portable mp3 device. You must first download a utility to your computer called "Overdrive." There are some nice tutorials that explain how the process work. The selection is quite limited for Mac users.

Go to the Bozeman Public Library Web site, and in the upper lefthand corner is a pull-down menu with the header "I want to...." Chose "download audio books" and you will go to the MontanaLibrary2Go site. Or, choose this link to go there directly. Click the "New to digital media" link in the green bar on the left to access the tutorials and directions or the graphic with download digital media Guided Tour.