Books
Short Poetry Collection 128
This is a collection of 29 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for January 2014.
Christianity in the 18th and 19th Century, Volume 2
The 32 works in this volume contain many diverse works from the period including sermons, essays, letters, commentaries, poems and reports. Many pieces are by the Anglican writers John Newton and Augustus Toplady. (Summary by InTheDesert) Christianity in the 18th and 19th Century, Volume 1
Short Story Collection Vol. 038
LibriVox?s Short Story Collection 038: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members.
Short Science Fiction Collection 076
Science fiction is a genre encompassing imaginative works that take place in this world or that of the author?s creation where anything is possible. The only rules are those set forth by the author. The speculative nature of the genre inspires thought and plants seeds that have led to advances in science. The genre can spark an interest in the sciences and is cited as the impetus for the career choice of many scientists. It is a playing field to explore social perspectives, predictions of the future, and engage in adventures unbound into the richness of the human mind. (A. Gramour)
Short Science Fiction Collection 046
Science Fiction is speculative literature that generally explores the consequences of ideas which are roughly consistent with nature and scientific method, but are not facts of the author?s contemporary world. The stories often represent philosophical thought experiments presented in entertaining ways. Protagonists typically ?think? rather than ?shoot? their way out of problems, but the definition is flexible because there are no limits on an author?s imagination. The reader-selected stories presented here were written prior to 1962 and became US public domain texts when their copyrights expired. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)
Short Science Fiction Collection 005
Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, originally published between 1960 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed. Summary by Cori Samuel, with Wikipedia input. Note: This collection originally included a tenth story, The Burning Bridge by Poul Anderson. That recording was removed in November 2011 because of a copyright claim.
Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 086
“The democracy of the future will sicken of a chronic and mortal boredom,” was Aldous Huxley’s prophecy for the United States in 1923. You won’t be bored listening to these 20 recordings, selected by their readers, with topics ranging from Leacock’s humorous Manual of Education to Unamuno’s Tragic Sense of Life. There’s an artist’s diary (Thomas Cole); an after-dinner speech (Mark Twain); reflections on Beauty by John Burroughs; Willa Cather and Christopher Morley on writing; and Leibniz on the Origin of Things. Political topics include the Power of Third Parties; the House of Commons; the 1904 South Dakota Land Lottery; and an NAACP anti-lynching poster. The 1918 Influenza Epidemic mirrors today’s Covid quarantine and mask requirements; while virtual adventure beckons in K?nigstein Fortress; an Equatorial Chinese Wedding; Nellie Bly; and An Humane Skeleton of Extraordinary Size. Finally, acts of heroism are celebrated in A Pioneer Girl and in Poland’s Tadeusz Ko?ciuszko. (Summary by Sue Anderson)
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 037
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder. You may also feel more jumpy tonight than usual. Note: ?Wake Not the Dead? (the last story in this collection) is often attributed to Johann Ludwig Tieck; however, work by researchers such as Rob Brautigam and Heide Crawford rediscovered that the actual author was Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach. Attributed to Raupach at its first German publication in ?Minerva: Taschenbuch fur das Jahr 1823?, its English translation in ?Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations? in the same year (the source used here) lacked any author attribution. The misattribution to Tieck may have been due to the fact that one of Tieck?s famous tales directly followed ?Wake Not the Dead? in that anthology. The misattribution became widespread after anthologist Peter Haining credited the story to Tieck in his popular collection ?Gothic Tales of Terror, Vol. 2? in 1973. (Note contributed by Rafe Ball)
Short Poetry Collection 091
This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for the month of September and October 2010.
Short Poetry Collection 151
This is a collection of 27 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for December 2015.
Short Poetry Collection 197
This is a collection of 46 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for October 2019. With a number of spooky ones for Halloween!
Love Stories Volume 4
Here are 20 more love stories under an hour each, offered by Librivox volunteers, covering all kinds of experiences involving romance or other kinds of love resulting in heartbreak or happiness — where the heart overflows with passion, pride, emotion or wonder. You know — love. ( ~ Michele Fry)
Short Poetry Collection 203
This is a collection of 63 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for April 2020.
Christmas Short Works Collection 2016
This year’s Christmas collection of short stories, poems and non-fiction features readings in English , French, Italian and Maori. Summary by Annise
Short Poetry Collection 050
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 050: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
Short Poetry Collection 205
This is a collection of 69 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for June 2020.
37 American Poems
Here are 37 distinctively American poems, covering the mid-17th – early 20th Centuries, from Anne Bradstreet to Dorothy Parker’s sole PD work. (Summary by BellonaTimes)
Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 026
A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass history, travel, embroidery, science, mathematics, humor, philosophy, politics, and nature. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)
Short Poetry Collection 142
This is a collection of 23 poems read by LibriVox volunteers for March 2015. Two poems of medium length in this collection: #04 “Copernicus” (13:38) is from the volume “Watchers of the Sky” by Alfred Noyes. #12 “A Joyful Meditation of the Coronation of King Henry the Eighth” (14:12). The original text was published as an eight-page pamphlet. In the surviving copy, the bottoms of the pages have been cropped. A total of three lines are therefore missing, and a further three have been reconstructed from their surviving portions. The html version of the poem shows these reconstructions. This poem has been read using modern English pronunciation. Some words have no modern equivalent, including such words as encensing, entenderment, soote, boote, withouten, inuentions, contrarious, and minnish which is short for dimminish. Emyspery = hemisphere. Quayre (quire) = an eight-page printed booklet. Tene = harm, injury or hurt. Rother = rudder The “monk of bery” was John Lydgate of Bury St. Edmunds (c. 1370 – c. 1451) a monk and poet.
Library of the World’s Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, volume 07
The Library of the World’s Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, is a work of enormous proportions. Setting out with the simple goal of offering “American households a mass of good reading”, the editors drew from literature of all times and all kinds what they considered the best pieces of human writing, and compiled an ambitious collection of 45 volumes (with a 46th being an index-guide). Besides the selection and translation of a huge number of poems, letters, short stories and sections of books, the collection offers, before each chapter, a short essay about the author or subject in question. In many cases, chapters contemplate not one author, but certain groups of works, organized by nationality, subject or period; there is, thus, a chapter on Accadian-Babylonian literature, one on the Holy Grail, and one on Chansons, for example. The result is a collection that holds the interest, for the variety of subjects and forms, but also as a means of first contact with such famous and important authors that many people have heard of, but never read, such as Abelard, Dante or Lord Byron. According to the editor Charles Dudley Warner, this collection “is not a library of reference only, but a library to be read.” This seventh volume contains chapters from “Henry Cuyler Bunner” to “Charles Stuart Calverley”. Summary by Leni.
Short Poetry Collection 225
This is a collection of 43 poems read in English by LibriVox volunteers for February 2022.
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 053
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder.
LibriVox Language Learning Collection Vol. 005
This collection is part of an initiative to create a language learning resource at LibriVox. The LibriVox Language Learning Collections contain readings from various language learning books, grammars, primers, phrasebooks, dictionaries, readers and even other works which contain information on various languages, recount experiences of language learning and encountering new languages or provide guides for correct pronunciation, writing or discourse in a language. These works could describe English or any other language whatsoever, from Latin to Sumerian, Chinese to Wampanoag, Esperanto to Swahili (etc.). (Summary by Nicholas J. Bridgewater)
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 023
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.
Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 057
Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Natural cataclysm is the subject of several readings: the 1899 Alaskan earthquake, which uplifted cliffs at Yakutat Bay 47 feet; a terrifying forest fire in Northern Wisconsin in 1899; the fiery sunsets which followed the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883; a storm at sea which sank the English frigate Anson in 1807; and the explosion of a hydrogen-filled dirigible over Chicago in 1919. Natural beauty, also a topic, includes a guide to the Antrim coast of Ireland, observations on Black Walnut trees and the communal life of Yellow-Jacket wasps, and an essay on how to paint reflections. Two colloquies of Erasmus explore a young woman’s choice to become a nun and the “preposterous judgments” of people who value the names of things more than the Things themselves. Progress–envisioned as the age of electricity; changes in burglary; and Nostradamus’ prognostications for the future round out the volume. -summary by Sue Anderson Elizabeth G. Peckham was the co-author of “Communal Life of Yellow-Jacket Wasps” Fifty Quatrains of Nostradamus was translated by Theophilus de Garenci?res
Short Ghost and Horror Collection 040
A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night. Revenge, fear, petrifying stress, mystery, and a small dose of humor, but don’t let your guard down… Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, the sound of a monstrous howl, and the occasional touch of wonder. You may also feel more jumpy tonight than usual.
Short Story Collection Vol. 028
LibriVox?s Short Story Collection 028: a collection of 10 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members.
Short Poetry Collection 017
LibriVox’s Short Poetry Collection 017: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.
Short Poetry Collection 086
This is a collection of poems read by LibriVox volunteers for the month of February 2010.
Short Poetry Collection 010
LibriVox?s Short Poetry Collection 010: a collection of 20 public-domain poems.