Whether you are looking for audiobook files for a long commute, road trip or to spice up a workout, you can find free downloads online. Audiobooks can be expensive to purchase, particularly if you do it regularly. Finding free audiobook downloads online gives you entertainment and more money in your pocket.

    Step 1: Read the classics.Books in the public domain occur frequently as free downloads. Several websites have public domain works available. In some cases, volunteers do the audio so the quality of reading may be less than in commercial works, but the catalogs are broad and the price is right-free.

    Step 2: Sign up for a free trial.With the growth of the audiobook industry, websites offering subscriptions or audiobooks for sale are growing too, and many offer free trials or free audiobooks. Sign up and try out the service; you may find it works for you and at the least, you get a free book or subscription time. Audiobooks from these sources tend to be current works and read more professionally than many volunteer produced ones.

    Step 3: Look for promotional materials.Some publishing companies give away audiobooks in order to attract new customers to a particular author or genre. The works are likely to be non-mainstream and the authors unknown but sometimes, you can find a gem.

    Step 4: Contact your local library.Your library may have a subscription to sources like OverDrive or netLibrary. If you have a free account with your local library, you can download audiobooks from the site your library has an account with. Audiobook choices tend to be similar to those you'd find on a commercial site so if your library has access, this is a great way to get books to listen to.

    Step 5: Search through available podcasts.Again, many of the podcast audiobooks produced are those in the public domain, but some authors are doing installments of their own books.

    Tips & Warnings

    Always check to see if your MP3 player is compatible with the downloads available. Although this is less of a concern than if you are buying the audiobook, it still takes time to find and download a free audiobook and it's frustrating if it doesn't work. For example, OverDrive and netLibrary audiobooks work with many MP3 players but did not start out compatible with iPods.

    If your library doesn't offer audiobook downloads, check with other local libraries, universities and school libraries for potential

    如果你上下班路途長(zhǎng)耗時(shí)多，或喜歡自駕車旅游，或喜歡在健身的同時(shí)聽(tīng)一點(diǎn)有趣的東西解解悶，那你也許需要在網(wǎng)上找一些有聲書籍。不管出于何目的，免費(fèi)當(dāng)然就是最好的了。因?yàn)橛新曌x物是很貴的，尤其是經(jīng)常要下載的時(shí)候，如果老得付費(fèi)，誰(shuí)受得了呢？如果有免費(fèi)的東西，不但玩起來(lái)開(kāi)心，口袋里的錢還能多活一陣子。在此奉獻(xiàn)幾個(gè)渠道，不妨試試：

    一、找一些經(jīng)典書目。一些公共網(wǎng)站上的有聲書籍往往是免費(fèi)的，有幾個(gè)網(wǎng)站就有這么一些免費(fèi)有聲圖書。有些情況下，免費(fèi)有聲讀物是由一些志愿者自己錄制的，質(zhì)量雖不如商業(yè)性作品好，但書目很多，而且完全免費(fèi)。

    二、試用期注冊(cè)。隨著有聲讀物這個(gè)行業(yè)的發(fā)展，提供訂閱或銷售有聲讀物的網(wǎng)站也越來(lái)越多。為了吸引讀者，很多網(wǎng)站都推出免費(fèi)試聽(tīng)或免費(fèi)贈(zèng)送有聲書籍等服務(wù)。這時(shí)候不妨注冊(cè)一下，你可能會(huì)覺(jué)得不錯(cuò)的，而且至少你能得到一本免費(fèi)有聲書籍或一段時(shí)間的免費(fèi)訂閱服務(wù)。通過(guò)這種渠道得到的有聲書籍一般都是最新作品，而且是由專業(yè)人士朗讀的，往往要比那些志愿者自己制作的好很多。

    三、搜索促銷資料。有些出版商為了吸引新客戶，也會(huì)拋出一些免費(fèi)有聲書籍，以讓讀者熟悉某個(gè)作者或某個(gè)類別的書籍。不過(guò)所拋出的這些書籍很可能是非主流作品，作者一般沒(méi)什么名氣，但有時(shí)候也會(huì)撿到一兩件寶貝。

    四、聯(lián)系當(dāng)?shù)氐膱D書館。圖書館一般都會(huì)有多個(gè)訂閱源，如OverDrive或netLibrary等。如果你在當(dāng)?shù)氐膱D書館有一個(gè)免費(fèi)帳號(hào)，就可以利用圖書館的帳號(hào)在其訂閱源上下載有聲書籍。這條渠道上的有聲讀物和你平時(shí)自己找到的一些商業(yè)性網(wǎng)站很相似，因此，如果你的圖書館有登錄通道，就是弄些書籍來(lái)聽(tīng)聽(tīng)的絕好辦法。

    五、搜一搜播客。播客上的有聲書籍一般都是公共網(wǎng)站上的東西，但有的作者喜歡分期分批制作他們自己的作品。

    一點(diǎn)技巧和忠告：

    別忘了要檢查一下打算下載的有聲讀物和你的MP3是否兼容。當(dāng)然，比起你花錢買到不兼容的作品，下載到不兼容的作品也不算什么，可畢竟浪費(fèi)時(shí)間，辛辛苦苦下載了，卻不能播放，確實(shí)令人沮喪。例如，OverDrive及netLibrary上的有聲讀物和很多MP3播放器都是兼容的，但和iPod就不是隨時(shí)都兼容的。

    如果當(dāng)?shù)貓D書館并不提供有聲讀物下載服務(wù)，你還可以去其他社區(qū)圖書館、大學(xué)圖書館和中學(xué)圖書館找一找，說(shuō)不定這些地方也能有一些免費(fèi)下載的東西。