You can find quite a few free audiobooks online but they’re frequently scattered all over. Save yourself the run around by checking out the thousands of free audiobooks cataloged at BookShouldBeFree.

BooksShouldBeFree houses thousands of books in the public domain, available as both MP3s and as iTunes format audiobooks. Each entry for a book includes links to the full text, supplemental text, and reviews.

The reviews are particularly helpful because they are specific to the actual audiobook recording and not just the book in general so you get feedback like “The use of character voices in this record was excellent” or “I love the story but this recording was a rather flat reading of the text.”, information relevant to your enjoyment of the book in audio form.

BooksShouldBeFree is a free service and requires to registration to use. Have a favorite place to find free audio books? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

I read about this at LIFEHACER.COM

Jump directly to booksshouldbefree.com.

Google made it easy to embed in a site any book available at Google Book Search. You can add a fully-functional widget using this code:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://books.google.com/books/previewlib.js”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
GBS_insertEmbeddedViewer(’GkCpLIk7aisC‘,600,500);
</script>

You should replace GkCpLIk7aisC with the corresponding book ID, which can be obtained from the URL. See this example on the post at Google Operating System.

Post from Google Operating System

For years now teachers have hailed the use of picture books at all levels. I too have seen the benefits of doing so. If you want to check out the books online, check out the new website called LookyBook.

Here you can read, rate, share and even place on your virtual shelf.

Pedagogical uses:

Lit circles come to mind as a way to use this site in the classroom.

You could also do book shares as well as keep up with your students’ reading (in the early elementary years)

Before you make that purchase online you could use this site to check out if a book is applicable for your junior high or high school level curriculum.