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Babeleo Books – audiobooks with text in English and Russian

If you want to listen to audiobooks in English, you're in for a tough challenge. Unlike, where a lot can be understood by gestures and facial expressions, in audiobooks everything must be perceived by ear. In addition, books are not so easy to find, because there are a lot of sites with audiobooks. From this review you will learn about the most, in my opinion, interesting sites with audiobooks.

Is it worth listening to audiobooks in English?

Audiobooks are not the easiest and affordable way listening. The difficulties associated with them are:

• Text is much more complex than our everyday chatter. If in colloquial speech 2000 - 3000 words are used, then in books - 5000 - 12000 words.
• The books are narrated for listeners, so the pace of speech may be too fast.

I will highlight the advantages:

• Audiobooks are good way improve listening comprehension skills. The main thing is that the book is interesting to you.
• Reading a book and listening to it are completely different “experiences”. In essence, an audiobook is something like a play, a radio drama.

In general, it makes sense to listen to an audiobook in English if it is interesting to you and understandable enough.

Where can I find audiobooks in English?

In my opinion, this is the best site with audiobooks in English. Access to books is paid, but costs a symbolic 200 - 300 rubles. per month, and the opportunities open up very interesting:

• Each book is presented in the form of parallel texts in English and Russian (only in English is possible) and is equipped with one or more audio versions.
• By clicking on a word in the text, you can see the translation and listen to the pronunciation.
• You can slow down or speed up the audio playback speed.
• The library has few books, about 50, but the selection of works is of very high quality.

The library has books such as “1984”, “The Hunger Games”, “Fight Club”, “White Fang”, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “Martin Eden” and other classic and modern works. Books, unfortunately, cannot be downloaded. In general, the service is designed more for reading, rather than listening to books.

2. Librivox – free audiobooks in English and other languages ​​in MP3 format

If you are looking for a site with a large number of different audiobooks in foreign languages ​​(not only in English), you can safely stop at librivox.org and stop searching. Librivox's mission is to make “all public domain books available for free in audio format via the Internet.” Public domain refers to books that are not protected by copyright, so you won't find the latest bestsellers here, but books are known to have a very long lifespan.

Books by D. London, one of my favorite authors, belong to the public domain

Main features of the site:

• Books are available not only in English, but also in other languages. Mainly in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese.
• Any book can be downloaded as an archive of MP3 files - each chapter in a separate file
• The site has more than 21,000 audiobooks in English.
• Unfortunately, audiobooks do not come with text.

3. Librophile – free e-books and audiobooks in English

Librophile.com is a collection site where you can find:

• Free e-books(text) - These are taken from the Gutengberg Free Library, a repository of out-of-copyright books.
• Free audiobooks – taken from the aforementioned Librivox.
• Paid audiobooks – links lead to the Audible store (more about it below)

The book can be listened to, downloaded and opened in the Gutenberg library

In general, this site is secondary to Librivox, Gutenberg and Audible, but I decided to mention it for the following reasons:

• Librivox conveniently contains audio and text books.
• Audiobooks have a link to the text version (on Gutenberg). This is convenient if you want to download both an audio file and text to listen and read.

4. Audible – paid audiobook store

It’s simply impossible not to mention audible.com in this review. Audible is the Amazon of audiobooks, making it one of the largest audiobook stores. If some new product or bestseller is released in audio format, it will definitely be on Audible.

The only problem is the price of the books - somewhere around $20 - $30 or $15 for one book with a monthly subscription. On the site you can get one book for free, but you will immediately be asked to enter your card details, and after 30 days, if you do not cancel your subscription, $15 will be charged for renewing your subscription.

Study methodology in English by listening to audiobooks is no less effective than other basic methods. Don't put audiobooks on the back burner.

If you have at least minimal knowledge of the language, then by all means, start listening to audiobooks at an entry level.

Audiobooks in English come in different types:

• Books narrated by native speakers – professionals in their field. This is the best and most quality option audiobooks The text, pronunciation, tempo, clear pronunciation, intonation will meet all standards. Undoubtedly, this version of the book for listening will be useful to absolutely everyone. However, there are not so many such books and they are often paid.
• Books narrated by native speakers. These are collections of audio files that are posted on the Internet by ordinary residents of English-speaking countries. Recordings can be of varying quality, since most often people make them at home, and not in recording studios in a team with experts in this field.

  The main problem may be reading the text by people with different accents, so the same text read different people, will be perceived differently.

  But freely available on the Internet, such books are very popular and it is useful to listen to them in order to get used to and learn to understand live English speech. Choose your favorite books and enjoy and benefit from such listening.

• Books narrated by Russian-speaking experts. These are generally good quality audiobooks that can be used for studying without any fear of learning mistakes or anything like that. But it is still worth remembering that no matter how well a Russian person speaks English, he is not a native speaker of this language. On initial stage Such books are recommended for compulsory listening to everyone who is learning English and wants to achieve results in this difficult task.

  Audio files are recorded in professional recording studios using good equipment, which makes them high quality. All words are pronounced clearly, distinctly, and legibly. The pace is usually a little slower to make it easier for beginners to make out the words and understand the meaning.

• Books voiced by special programs. Such books are not widely distributed, but they are still found on the Internet. The quality of such recordings is quite good, but this is good for robots, since the text is read unemotionally, at the same pace, with the same intonation. Although all words are pronounced according to the transcription in the dictionary, listening to such audio is a very boring experience.

Why is it better to learn English from audiobooks?

Everyone understands that you need maximum practice and various kinds of exercises to learn English successfully. The most difficult thing is communicating and understanding native speakers.

You can thoroughly learn the rules of grammar, have a huge lexicon, it’s good to tell monologues in English, but at the same time you can’t understand native speakers at all. Live English speech cannot be understood unless you practice listening to it.

When you first hear the speech of a native speaker, you immediately feel the difference from the speech of a Russian-speaking person in English. In order to understand the English, you need to listen to them.

Vocabulary expansion

Undoubtedly, when listening to books in English, almost every sentence contains new words or new combinations of already known words. Even if you don’t write down words in a separate notebook or notepad, or look for translations of words in dictionaries, new words will still end up in your passive vocabulary.

Of course, it will be very useful if you immediately transfer such words from passive to active stock, but for this you need to remember it and try to use it in speech in the future, at least until the word moves from short-term memory to long-term memory.

You don't have to remember everything unknown words from an audiobook in English, select only those that you use in your native speech, with the help of which you are accustomed to expressing your thoughts.

If you don’t feel a word in Russian and are not used to using it in everyday life, then it is unlikely to become useful to you at the initial stage of learning English. Perhaps when you learn a foreign language at a high enough level, you will return to these words.

Studying spoken grammar

English grammar is a very complex aspect, as it has many tenses, phrases, structures, constructions and exceptions to all the rules.

In English lessons, all the rules and cases in which one or another tense should be used are discussed in detail.

But in live speech, we do not always have time to grasp exactly what point of the rule a person was guided by, or used a certain tense or construction.

However, if you listen to similar sentences several times, this will not cause misunderstanding; you will simply have an automatic habit of speaking and hearing exactly this option.

When listening to audiobooks in English, inductive learning occurs, that is, from individual similar sentences you can logically understand the rule.

That is, using specific examples, you can build a general rule.

English speech perception

Many argue that without immersion in a language environment it is impossible to learn the language of its native speakers. But where can one find enough volunteer native English speakers to surround all the willing students?

Of course, those who have the opportunity to travel will be able to plunge into an English-speaking environment at least for a short time. But not everyone can do this.

To simulate such useful environment at least somehow, it is necessary to listen to at least the recordings made by the British. And this is exactly what audiobooks are. By regularly listening to English speech, you can develop good listening and speech recognition skills in English.

You can study anytime and anywhere

The availability of methods for teaching English using audiobooks is a very attractive advantage. Most people have MP3 players, phones that can play audio files, tablets and other modern devices.

To start listening to audiobooks, you only need access to the Internet to listen online or download the book you like. You can use audiobooks to learn English at any time and place convenient for you.

Some people spend their breaks at work in such a useful way, some listen to books on the way home on public transport, some listen to them as a habit from childhood before going to bed, and for others, audiobooks help them relax and take their mind off problems.

There would be a desire to listen to audiobooks in English, and you can always find the time and place for this.

How to choose the right audiobooks for beginners?

• The main rule that must be followed when choosing an audiobook is that you must like the book!!!

A book should bring you, first of all, pleasure. Perhaps this will be your favorite book, which you have repeatedly re-read in Russian, or a book that your friends have long recommended you to read, but you never got around to it.

The main thing is that it arouses your interest and desire to learn its content, its new sound in English.

• The book should correspond to your level of knowledge of the English language.

There are countless debates on the topic: What is better to listen to adapted books or originals? Of course, listening to the originals is very useful. But will a beginner learn English be able to listen and understand Shakespeare in the original and will it bring him as much benefit as the adapted text?..

For beginners, it is still better to choose something that will, as they say, be tough. So pick up a book the required level from the total number of adapted audiobooks and combine pleasant listening with useful ones.

• The book should be of a volume that you can handle.

You shouldn’t choose a book that you will listen to for three years, and at the end you won’t be able to remember where it all began.

If you don't have a lot of free time to listen to audiobooks, it is better to choose a short story that you will listen to in a few days or a week, but at the same time you will not forget anything and will get good motivation.

The pride of finishing an audiobook will motivate you to listen to another one.

Where can I find audiobooks for beginners in English online?

There are a huge number of audiobooks in English on the Internet. different levels and quality, therefore, for any such request, any search engine will give you, if not thousands, then at least hundreds or dozens of useful sites with audiobooks.

Stage 1 (Elementary): This is the beginner level. Audiobooks at this level are distinguished by simple vocabulary and elementary grammar.

Stage 2 (Beginner): audiobooks are also simple from a lexical and grammatical point of view, easily understood by beginners learning the language.

Stage 3 (Pre-Intermediate): audiobooks of “average difficulty”, there are no particular difficulties yet, but in terms of grammar, a very wide range of grammatical tenses is already used here.

Stage 4 (Intermediate): audiobooks at this level are already approaching natural works of fiction in their lexical and grammatical complexity.

Stage 5 (Upper-Intermediate): audiobooks at the fifth level are almost authentic works of fiction with minor adaptations of overly complex and not widely used grammatical structures, as well as minor lexical corrections.

Texts are provided for all audiobooks, which is designed to make listening easier in case of difficulties.

Elementary Beginner Pre-Intermediate Intermediate Upper-Intermediate

Tim Vicary “The Elephant Man”.
He is not beautiful. His mother does not want him, children run away from him. People laugh at him, and call him ‘The Elephant Man’.

Mark Twain “Huckleberry Finn”.
Who wants to live in a house, wear clean clothes, be good, and go to school every day? Not young Huckleberry Finn, that’s for sure. So Huck runs away, and is soon floating down the great Mississippi River on a raft. With him is Jim, a black slave who is also running away. But life is not always easy for the two friends. And there’s 300 dollars waiting for anyone who catches poor Jim. . .

Rudyard Kipling “Jungle Book”.
In the jungle of Southern India the Seeonee Wolf-Pack has a new cub. He is not a wolf – he is Mowgli, a human child, but he knows nothing of the world of men. He lives and hunts with his brothers the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther are his friends and teachers. And Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, is his enemy.

O. Henry “New Yorkers Short Stories”.
A housewife, a tramp, a lawyer, a waitress, an actress – ordinary people living ordinary lives in New York at the beginning of this century. The city has changed greatly since that time, but its people are much the same. Some are rich, some are poor, some are happy, some are sad, some have found love, some are looking for love.

Daniel Defoe “Robinson Crusoe”.
I often walked along the shore, and one day I saw something in the sand. I went over to look at it more carefully. . . It was a footprint – the footprint of a man!’. In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a small island off the coast of South America. After fifteen years alone, he suddenly learns that there is another person on the island. But will this man be a friend – or an enemy?

Joyce Hannam “The Death of Karen Silkwood”.
This is the story of Karen Silkwood. It begins with her death. Why does her story begin where it should end? Certain people wanted her death to be an ending. Why? What were they afraid of? Karen Silkwood had something to tell us, and she believed that it was important. Why didn't she live to tell us? Will we ever know what really happened? The questions go on and on, but there are no answers. This is a true story. It happened in Oklahoma, USA, where Karen Silkwood lived and worked. . . and died.

Rosemary Border “The Piano”.
One day, a farmer tells a farm boy to take everything out of an old building and throw it away. ‘It’s all rubbish,’ he says. ‘In the middle of all the rubbish, the boy finds a beautiful old piano. He has never played before, but now, when his fingers touch the piano, he begins to play. He closes his eyes and the music comes to him – and the music moves his fingers. When he opens his eyes again, he knows that his life is changed for ever…

Erich Segal “Love Story”.
This is a love story you won't forget. Oliver Barrett meets Jenny Cavilleri. He plays sports, she plays music. He's rich, and she's poor. They argue, and they fight, and they fall in love. So they get married, and make a home together. They work hard, they enjoy life, they make plans for the future. Then they learn that they don’t have much time left.

Frances Burnett “The Secret Garden”.
Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house. There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens – and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key.

Jerome K. Jerome “Three Men in a Boat.”
With ideas like this, perhaps it is not a good idea to spend a holiday taking a boat trip up the River Thames. But this is what the three friends – and Montmorency the dog – decide to do. It is the sort of holiday that is fun to remember afterwards, but not so much fun to wake up to early on a cold, wet morning.

Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”.
The wind is strong on the Yorkshire moors. There are few trees, and fewer houses, to block its path. There is one house, however, that does not hide from the wind. It stands out from the hill and challenges the wind to do its worst. The house is called Wuthering Heights. When Mr Earnshaw brings a strange, small, dark child back home to Wuthering Heights, it seems he has opened his doors to trouble. He has invited in something that, like the wind, is safer kept out of the house.

We have previously talked about how you can develop your listening skill: by listening to English radio, visiting speaking clubs or watching films and TV series in English. Audiobooks also help improve English listening comprehension, and we’ll talk about them today.

Audiobooks in English have a number of advantages that even the most ardent fans of printed publications cannot ignore.

Firstly, An audiobook develops the skill of perceiving English-language information by ear, whereas when reading a regular book, you only remember the alphabetic spelling of words.

Secondly, You can listen to an audiobook in a situation where it is inconvenient for you to read: in transport, doing housework, while walking, etc.

Third, An audiobook allows you to relieve stress from your visual organs. If you often sit at the computer, then it is better to protect your eyesight and listen to some books rather than read.

Fourthly, good audiobooks are recorded by professional actors, which means you can be absolutely sure of the quality of pronunciation and clarity of speech.

Disadvantages of audiobooks in English

Audiobooks form only one skill: listening to English-language information. That is why they cannot completely replace printed publications. Regular books allow you to memorize the letter spelling of words. When listening to an audiobook, you will have to adjust to its pace. When reading an ordinary book, you skim or skim through some points, and re-read some paragraphs several times. When listening to an audiobook, you won't have this option. Of course, you can listen to a certain passage again, but the choice of reading pace remains with the creators of the book. In addition, some people do not perceive audiobooks on a subconscious level:

“I don’t like audiobooks: my inner voice gets mad when it’s not him who reads books to me.”

How to choose the right audiobook?

Before downloading an audiobook in English, determine which one you need. The choice will depend not only on your literary preferences, but also on your level of English, as well as on the goals you want to achieve when listening to the work.

You can download audiobooks in English for beginners. If your level of English is not higher than Pre-Intermediate, it is better to start listening short stories and history. In addition, you can download audiobooks in English with translation into Russian. This method will allow you to replenish your vocabulary with new words. If you love fairy tales, we can recommend you to download children's books in English.

If you are not confident in your ability to easily perceive English speech by ear, you should not start listening to books in English with classical works: you can download adapted audiobooks in English. Another interesting option for learning English with audiobooks: download audiobooks in English with text. By simultaneously reading and listening to an audiobook, you intuitively connect the lettering of words with their pronunciation, memorize new words, and train reading, listening, and writing skills.

You can also select a book by category:

• fiction or not artistic
• narrator: woman or man
• American or British English
• adapted or unadapted literature

Where can I download audiobooks in English?

We offer the TOP 6 best sites through which you can download audiobooks in English absolutely free. If you are interested in questions about where to download audiobooks in English in mp3, where to find audiobooks in English for Android, how to download audiobooks in English for iPhone, you will find the answers on the suggested portals.

We wish you success in learning the language!

Listening to audiobooks is a good method of learning English, which helps to combine business with pleasure. At the same time, you develop listening skills (listening to English speech), expand your vocabulary, and get acquainted with the masterpieces of world literature.

People who narrate audiobooks tend to be speakers with pleasant, correct pronunciation.

How can you work with audiobooks?

You can listen to audiobooks in English: on the road, in the morning, before bed, while cleaning the house, preparing lunch, or you can set aside special time for this.

There are people who argue that you should definitely follow the text, so you will remember more words, their correct pronunciation. Others prefer to just listen, making the argument that when you come to an English-speaking country and go to a store/pub/museum, you will not be able to look into the script to understand what they are saying to you. Likewise, when listening to audio recordings, you need to try to understand the meaning without looking anywhere. It seems to me that you can look at the text. This won't hurt at the beginning level, especially if the narrator reads quickly and you can't catch whole sentences.

Some They don’t try to translate absolutely every word from an audiobook and study one book for a long time, listening to it many times. In order to transfer words and expressions of the English language from passive to active, they do the following: read aloud, recording their speech on audio media, in order to compare their pronunciation with the pronunciation of the speaker. There are also those who try to manually record everything that the announcer says.

I advise learn English with interest. Therefore, if you really like the book and you want to learn it yourself and know every word, then your desire to sit with it for hours is understandable. At the same time, remember that women need to listen and repeat after the female narrator, men need to listen to the pronunciation of male readers, and do not forget about age! However, you still shouldn’t stop at one book or reader. The more you listen to English, the more diverse the genres and narrators, the better you will perceive English by ear.

Where can I find audiobooks in English?

Today there are several good foreign sites that provide free audiobooks in English for downloading:

- one of the best collections of audiobooks.

- short audio stories.

– volunteers (native speakers) read books and send files to the site. Absolutely free audiobooks with good sound quality and texts.

– classic audiobooks.

– free audiobooks and videos for learning and self-development.

– an interesting resource, free modern audiobooks, often read by the authors themselves, mainly with musical accompaniment. You can read reviews from those who have already listened to the books.

About four years ago the site was a magical place where you could easily download audiobooks in English. But, unfortunately, now you can only download anything from there for free in terrible quality. The cost of full-length audiobooks is $5-8

You can choose a book:

• by category – fiction/for children/non-fiction,
• according to the narrator - woman/man,
• according to the English option - American/British,
• according to additional parameters - no murders, no swearing, not adapted, not marked “for adults only”,
• after listening to the excerpt.

Of course, there are Russian-language sites that offer downloads of audiobooks in English, but, unfortunately, there are not many books there and they are repeated, and sometimes instead of audiobooks there are either VOA (Voice of America) broadcasts, or, much less often, BBC.

What to remember?

Perhaps the most important thing is to regularly study with audiobooks in English. Don't stop just because you've downloaded a couple of books. Set aside a specific time for listening and practice every day. Remember that listening to audio books in English a little but often is better than listening a lot but rarely. Have fun! I wish you success!