PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement » John Wesley http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:22:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Free Audio Books http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/free-audio-book-and-podcast-resources/ http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/free-audio-book-and-podcast-resources/#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:00:00 +0000 John Wesley http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/free-audio-book-and-podcast-resources/ A baby wearing headphone, ain't he cute?

A couple months ago when I wrote about investing time wisely and the concept of multiple positives many readers commented, saying that an excellent way to educate yourself and spice up an otherwise boring workout is listening to audio books and podcasts while you hit the gym. It also works great for beating the boredom while you’re stuck in traffic during your daily commute.

To help you find the best audio content the web has to offer, I’ve compiled a list of resources for free audio books and podcasts on a wide range of interesting topics. Enjoy, and you if know of any good sites I’ve overlooked, please leave a link in the comments.

Free Audio Books

LibriVox, if you don’t know it already, is the king of free audio books. You can use the catalog to search through their library of nearly 1000 works, all part of the public domain. If you’re feeling generous, you can even contribute wiki-style by recording audio of your own.

AudioBooksForFree also has a big catalog to sort through, with an emphasis on classic works, but a decent amount of mystery, sci-fi, and thriller as well. The only catch here is that you’ll have to pay for quality: the lowest quality downloads are free but anything better than 8 Kbps costs $5-8.

If you’re looking specifically for classics, FreeClassicAudioBooks is a nice little resource. Although the library isn’t huge, there are a lot of big names. They also offer the convenience of downloading in an iPod-ready format.

Who knew that on top of all that print content, ProjectGutenberg also has a huge audio section? They’ve got everything from Aesop to Zola, including a decent number of works in French, German, and other languages.

LearnOutLoud has over 500 educational titles and offers a lot of video as well.

The bright side here is that you can probably get almost any older work in the public domain for free. If what you’re looking for is a bit more modern you’ll either have to shell out a few dollars or try to find a relevant podcast.

Free Podcasts

For iTunes users, the fastest and simplest way to find podcasts and load them directly to your iPod is through iTunes Store. Just click on the podcasts button in the store and you’ll be taken to a huge podcast directory. The trick is finding what you actually want.

If you’re looking for a particular subject, The Educational Podcast Network has a big list of subject specific podcasts that cover most academic topics.

If you could use a few personal recommendations, this thread on AskMetafilter points out a number of educational and entertaining podcasts. NPR has a nice collection of informative podcasts too.

Other good sources include the PodcastDirectory and Yahoo! Podcasts, which allows you to browse by popularity and user ratings.

For the tech savvy reader looking to catch up on the latest buzz, I’d also recommend checking out Digg’s podcast section.

Image by Dala*

]]> http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/free-audio-book-and-podcast-resources/feed/ 99 101 Online Self Improvement Resources http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/ http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/#comments Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:45:56 +0000 John Wesley http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/ Recently readers have asked me to share my favorite self improvement resources. Most of these sites don’t revolve around classic self improvement topics, but they all contain valuable information you can use to improve your life. Here are 101 online self improvement resources, organized into 5 general categories.

It’s a rather long list, so if you don’t have much time I’d recommend bookmarking it with del.icio.us and coming back later. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments.

Self Improvement Resources

These resources specialize in helping you make the most of your time.

Personal Development

Sites in this category cover all topics traditionally related to personal growth and development.

Mentally Stimulating

These sites, focused mainly on art and science, never fail to make me think.

Business, Blogging, and Financial Success

Although many of these are targeted at my fellow bloggers and webmasters, some are relevant to everyone. They all aim to help you become a financial success.

Educational References and Reading

These sites contain massive amounts of information and are my favorite destinations (other than Google) for serious research or casual reading.

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