Librivox: How Mrs. Dude plans to read the classics

I wish I had the patience to read books that would make me a better, more culturally aware person.

I don't.

I read one or two pages and get bored.

Librivox has solved all of my problems, and they did it for free.

I could jump for joy.

Librivox is an initiative that has volunteers reading works of fiction and non-fiction that are currently in the public domain.

For a reasonably concise explanation of public domain,go here.

Chapters of works are read by volunteers and uploaded to the interwebs where anyone can download them. Users can search or browse the Librivox catalog and either download the file to their computers or subscribe to a book in iTunes in the form of a podcast.

I chose the "subscribe in iTunes" option and it was quick and painless. Each chapter is a separate podcast.

I am currently listening to Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Because the people reading the books are volunteers, you don't always have professional-sounding people reading to you. Sometimes I don't always like the voice of the person reading a chapter. Conversely, if you do like the voice of someone reading a chapter, there's no guarantee that person will be reading the next chapter. But, it's free, so I'm willing to deal with a bit of amateur-ness from the readers.

I'll start listing the books I read via Librivox, so that the two of you who might be interested can follow along at home.

I heartily recommend checking out Librivox and either listening or volunteering to read. Or, heck, go crazy and do both!