I love to learn but I don’t have enough time to sit and read all the interesting books I’m always adding to my reading list. That’s why I turn to audiobooks, which I can easily listen to when I’m on the go using my iPhone.
For most of my life, I have tried to complete a book a week and failed. Then I discovered how easy it is to listen to audiobooks on my iPhone while I’m commuting, working out and walking outside.
This led me to set a more realistic goal of listening to a few audiobooks a month, which is a learning goal I am able to achieve.
I recommend setting aside at least 20 minutes a day to go for a walk and listen to one of the free audiobooks on this reading list.
Why Listen To Audiobooks On Your Smartphone?
Listening to audiobooks is fun and easy and you can enjoy on your iPhone or Android anytime and anywhere you go.
Most of the free audiobooks on this reading list are in the public domain because they are over 50 years old. If you want to listen to brand new books in audiobook format then I recommend getting an audiobook subscription with either Audible (1 Month Free Trial then $14.95/month) or Scribd (60 Day Free Trial then $8.95/month)
I’m a huge believer in classical Liberal Education and the reason I recommend listening to these free audiobooks as much as you can is that they are portals into the minds of history’s most influential and inspiring geniuses, philosophers and truth seekers.
Who wouldn’t want to know how great people like Einstein, Tesla and Da Vinci thought? Many of the struggles and problems you encounter in your life have been better understood and solved by different historical figures.
While reading on the web and listening to podcasts are great ways to learn, if you want to learn something deeply then you should read or listen to a complete book.
The problem with only learning on the web and consuming information in quick bite-sized chunks on social networks is you often end up with a fragmented understanding of things but you get less of this when you complete entire audiobooks.
The structure of books are designed to give us a much more complete understanding of a subject area and many classic books are the results of a lifetime of research and experimentation by their authors.
My Free Audiobook Challenge:
I highly recommend building the habit of regularly listening to free audiobooks. Set aside some time each day to go for a walk and listen to one of these audiobooks.
All the free audiobooks on this reading list are available in the public domain so you can listen to them in different audio formats using the YouTube app on your iPhone or Android.
If you want also to download them to MP3 format, you can try a free tool like ClipConverter and use an audiobook format converter so you can automatically bookmark your last spot when listening.
Western Philosophy:
The classics of Western philosophy from ancient Greece, the Middles Ages, the Enlightenment and beyond.
1. The Republic (Plato)
2. Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
3. On Liberty (John Stuart Mill)
4. Common Sense (Thomas Paine)
5. The Age of Reason (Thomas Paine)
6. Anthem (Ayn Rand)
7. The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx)
8. The Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle)
9. Beyond Good and Evil (Friedrich Nietzsche)
10. Thus Spake Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche)
11. The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
12. The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
13. The Odyssey (Homer)
14. The Illiad (Homer)
15. The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin)
16. The Way To Wealth (Benjamin Franklin)
17. Character Building (Booker T. Washington)
18. On the Nature of the Gods (Cicero)
19. Of Peace of Mind (Seneca)
Eastern Philosophy:
A good counterbalance to Western philosophy with a greater focus on the practical knowledge of the mind and self-liberation.
2. Freedom From The Known (Krishnamurti)
3. Sadhana: The Realization of Life (Sadhana)
4. Reincarnation (Swami Abhedananda)
5. The Kama Sutra (Vatsyayana)
6. The Way of the Warrior (Bushido)
7. The Buddic Consciousness (C. W. Leadbeater)
8. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
9. The Mahabharata (Vyasa)
10. The Tao of Pooh
11. The Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu)
12. The Dhammapada (The Buddha)
13. The Art of War (Sun Tze)
15. The Path of Light (Shantideva)
16. The Upanishads
17. The Yoga Sutras (Patanjali)
18. The Analects of Confucius (Confucius)
19. On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Alan Watts)
Science:
Develop your understanding of the nature of physics and the Universe.
1. A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
2. The Theory of Relativity (Albert Einstein)
3. The Pioneers of Science (Sir Oliver Lodge)
4. Physics (Aristotle)
History:
Learning history liberates you. Those who dismiss and forget history are condemned to repeat it.
1. Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World In Our Time (Caroll Quigley)
2. History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 (Gaston Maspero)
3. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (John Perkins)
4. The Story of Atlantis and Lemuria (William Scott-Elliot)
5. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edward Gibbon)
6. A History of Western Philosophy (Bertrand Russel)
8. A History of the United States (Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard)
The Torah, Bible, and Koran:
The books of the three Abrahamic religions and their different translations of God, morality, and truth.
1. Genesis
5. Proverbs
6. Psalms
7. The Bible
8. The Torah
9. The Koran
American Literature:
The counter-cultural icons and literary greats who defined American ideals of freedom and liberty.
1. On The Road (Jack Kerouac)
2. Dharma Bums (Jack Kerouac)
3. Nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
4. Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
5. Civil Disobedience (Henry David Thoreau)
6. The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper)
7. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)
8. The Call of the Wild (Jack London)
9. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman)
10. This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
11. The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
British Literature:
There is a long tradition in British literature toward individualism and challenging authoritarian structures of power at home and abroad.
1. 1984 (George Orwell)
2. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
3. The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)
4. The Lost World (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
5. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare)
6. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
7. The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling)
8. Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift)
9. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
10. Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
11. The Magi (William Butler Yeats)
12. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
13. The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)
14. The Doors of Perception (Aldous Huxley)
15. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
European Literature:
The literary classics that have defined European cultural ideals and modern ideas of freedom and democracy.
1. Faust (Goethe)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
3. Aesop’s Fables (Aesop)
4. Notes From The Underground (Feydor Dochevsky)
5. The Soul of Man (Oscar Wilde)
6. What I Believe (Leo Tolstoy)
7. Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)
8. Candide (Voltaire)
9. Around The World In 80 Days (Jules Verne)
10. Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm)
11. Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)
Classic Biographies:
Get inspired by exploring the lives, routines, and thoughts of influential historical figures.
1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
2. The Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda)
3. The Story of My Life (Helen Keller)
4. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X)
5. Autobiography of Mark Twain (Mark Twain)
6. Long Walk To Freedom (Nelson Mandela)
7. Henry Ford’s Own Story (Rose Wilder Lane)
8. Geronimo’s Story of His Life
9. My Inventions (Nikola Tesla)
Higher Education:
What does it mean to be educated? Different methods for learning how to learn.
1. Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook
3. Democracy and Education (John Dewey)
4. How To Listen To Music (Henry Edward Krehbiel)
5. Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use It (William Walker Atkinson)
Politics:
Ground-breaking books on politics that force you to think differently.
1. The Theory of Social Revolutions (Brooks Adams)
2. Public Opinion (Walter Lippmann)
3. The Social Contract (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
4. God and the State (Mikhail Bakunin)
5. The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice (Stephen Leacock)
6. Second Treatise of Government (John Locke)
Psychology:
Roadmaps for understanding your psychology, behavior and ultimate human potential.
1. Dream Psychology (Sigmund Freud)
2. Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Sigmund Freud)
3. Approaching The Unconscious (Carl Jung)
4. Studies in the Psychology of Sex (Havelock Ellis)
5. Essay on the Creative Imagination (Theodule Ribot)
6. The Creative Mind (Ernest Shurtieff Holmes)
Personal Development:
Classic personal development books that are read by millions.
1. Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
2. How To Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
3. The New Psycho-Cybernetics (Maxwell Maltz)
4. As A Man Thinketh (James Allen)
5. The Power of Concentration (Theron Q. Dumont)
6. A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis (Melvin Powers)
7. The Science of Getting Rich (Wallace D. Wattles)
8. How To Analyze People On Sight (Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict)
9. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (Joseph Murphy)
10. The Science of Being Great (Wallace D. Wattles)
11. The Automatic Millionaire (David Bach)
12. In Tune With the Infinite (Ralph Waldo Trine)
13. Self Reliance (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
14. Nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Listen To These Free Audiobooks On Your iPhone or Android
Listen to these free audiobooks anywhere you go using the YouTube App. If you enjoyed any of these audiobooks, please share them with your family and friends.
