AudioBooksForFree.com has been around for a long time and since I got my first audiobook downloads here I have a degree of affection for this site. Like Project Gutenberg this site works outside the publishing system so (with some minor exceptions) restricts itself to works already in the public domain. Unlike Project Gutenberg it does not go specifically for classics instead opting for a wonderful mix of pre-Great War detectives, Victorian Adventure Fiction, Pirate Biographies, Card Games and other verbal bric-a-brac.
Either I have improved my standards or the place has gone somewhat to seed. In spite of its name this is a for-profit site. The eponymous free audio are low quality versions of the sites titles that can be downloaded in multiple segments. For easier downloads or higher quality files money must change hands. I'm guessing that insufficient people were biting and upgrading to the paid content so someone decided to downgrade the quality of the free stuff. The problem is that the audiobooks did not start off as particularly great and this reviewer's verdict is that the mental strain of listening to the free files outweighs their worth.
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