October, 2016

About audiobook apps and ads in recordings

Posted on October 27, 2016 by | Posted in Blog, News | Comments: Comments Off on About audiobook apps and ads in recordings

Have you run across a Librivox book that’s for sale or has an embedded advertisement? Look in our catalog for the originals, which are always free and never include ads.

Many of our listeners use apps to access Librivox recordings. Librivox has nothing to do with app development. All apps are produced by third parties. There is no legal problem with app developers using our public-domain recordings because public domain means that our volunteers reserve no rights. App developers don’t ask our permission, and we don’t try to stop anyone from using (or selling) our recordings because they are not doing anything illegal. And an app can sometimes be the easiest way to access an audiobook on a mobile device.

Listeners who are not having a good experience with an app often contact us directly, not realizing that we did not make the app and have no say in the content. This is to be expected when you make your recordings free for anyone to use as they like. The admin who monitors our help email simply lets them know that we aren’t involved with any apps and asks them to contact the developers instead.

Lately we have been hearing from listeners who are angry about political ads embedded within Librivox books. Not knowing that we didn’t place the ads, they now associate Librivox with political viewpoints they strongly disagree with. Some have told us they are no longer recommending Librivox to friends and family and are no longer open to volunteering for Librivox, as they had once planned to do.

If you know of anyone who is angry about a fee for or an addition to a Librivox book, please let them know they can come to our website to download the originals for free. And ask them to tell the app developers what they think, good as well as bad; this can help the truly useful audiobook apps become even better. We have let the app maker who included the ads know about the negative feedback.

(re-post from October 6, which was lost in the system failure)

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Temporary Server Failure

Posted on October 15, 2016 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, News, site & admin | Comments: Comments Off on Temporary Server Failure

We are very sorry, but a temporary server failure has reset our catalog to its status of September 15th, 2016. So, there are no books on the LibriVox homepage that were catalogued after this date.

We have now fixed the server and are very busy to recreate our catalog. However, this will take some time, so please be patient. We hope to have the catalog and the homepage fully restored within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, all our catalogued books (even those from after September 15) are safely stored on the Internet Archive and can be accessed and downloaded from the LibriVox page on archive.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience and want to thank you already for your patience.

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Man spricht deutsh

Posted on October 1, 2016 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Books, For Volunteers, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: Comments Off on Man spricht deutsh

LibriVox has quite a large German speaking community who has been reading numerous works by German authors. This month, we honour both with 10 gems from our catalog.

Alexander von Humboldt
was a major figure in German science, and he is credited with founding the fields of biogeography. Homeschooled like his brother, he was always interested in nature and was finally able to travel extensively in South America where he wrote Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America During the Years 1799 – 1804.

Kasperl in der Türkei is also a travel narrative, although it is by far not politically correct. The main character is Kasperl Larifari, a brainchild of Franz Graf von Pocci, who was a court official of Ludwig I. of Bavaria. However, he is better known as the founder of the Munich Marionette Theatre, for which he wrote numerous plays like the above.

When Gottfried Keller was young, he wanted to become a painter, but despite having talent, he turned to writing instead. In 1876 he retired early from a government job to write full time. His most famous novel is Der grüne Heinrich – dealing with the life on an impoverished young artist – which is considered autobiographical.

Carl von Ossietzky was a German pacifist who worked as an investigative journalist. He was convicted for treason in 1931, and received the 1935 Nobel Prize for Peace – a controversial decision. His collected writings Sämtliche Schriften 1911-1921 for various newspapers are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

Another German journalist was Jakob Wassermann; he worked as copy editor for the Simplicissimus in Munich and released his first novel in 1896. His novel Caspar Hauser oder die Trägheit des Herzens attempts to solve the mystery surrounding the famous foundling of Nuremberg.

A mystery also shrouds Die Frau mit den Karfunkelsteinen by Eugenie Marlitt, a very popular German novelist. As a young girl she was adopted by Princess of Schwarzenberg-Sondershausen and sent to Vienna to study music. However, Eugenie became deaf and eventually, at age 38, turned to writing novels.

Not quite so drastic a change of occupation was that of Martin Luther. The monk, disgusted by some practices of Catholicism, became a seminal figure in the Protestant Revolution, and was excommunicated in 1521. His book Der Kleine Kathechismus was meant to teach Bible basics to common people, and is – with small modifications – still in use today. We also have an English translation of this book.

Theology, amongst others, was one of the studies Carl Spitteler engaged in. The Swiss poet then became a teacher in Russia and started publishing in 1881. He won the Nobelprize for Literature in 1919, and his Balladen is a good collection of his poems.

Poetry stood at the beginning of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff’s literary career. A precocious but unencouraged child, she became one of the most important German poets. Her most famous novella is Die Judenbuche about a murder that is avenged only years after the deed…

Some 100 years after her, Stefan Zweig was one of the most popular writers world wide. Of Jewish descent, he left Austria after the Nazis came to power. He committed suicide together with his wife in 1942. Brennendes Geheimnis deals with a young boy who cannot understand his mother’s attraction to another man. An English version is available.

Enjoy our selection of German authors!

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