Approximately one in five Spaniards has heard an audiobook in the last year, according to an study by Audible and Nielseniq. Applications such as Audible stand out for their wide catalog, although there are also many other interesting tools and apps available for both iPhone and Android devices. This is the case of Librivox, where stories are narrated by volunteers around the world in more than 20 languages. While Blinkist summarizes in just 15 minutes the key ideas of a book, Google Lens allows the mobile to read the pages of a physical specimen aloud.
The audiobook giant
Audible has more than 240,000 titles in its library. Of these, 28,000 are available in Spanish. The application stands out for its attractive visual design and an intuitive interface. The catalog is organized by categories, although it is also possible to find specific titles through the search engine. The most popular genre in 2024 was the science fiction and fantasy, closely followed by the Thrillers and historical novels. Among the audiobooks, podcast and more listened sound fictions, are The mysterious case of Styles of Agatha Christie, The master plan by Javier Sierra, A house in Brenthouse Road from Lorena Franco or The opposite forces by Lorenzo Silva.
The Spaniards listen to audiobooks at least once a month. This is indicated by the Audible and Nielseniq study, which emphasizes that the listening session lasts average about 29 minutes. “Audiobooks have transformed the way people consume books,” they say from Audible. But “they do not replace traditional reading”: “57% of the listeners listened to a book that I had already read and 55% read a book after hearing it.”
Listening experience is customizable. It is possible to adjust the reproduction speed, and the app shows at all times how long the book is to end. For example, Proper namesby Marta Jiménez Serrano, it lasts almost nine hours at normal speed, but if it reproduces at twice the speed, the time is reduced by half. In addition, a timer can be activated to stop playback. Among the most outstanding functions is that of “clip”, which allows you to save audio fragments and add personalized notes. In addition to downloading audiobooks to read them without connection, it is possible to establish listening and write reviews. Audible offers a free trial month and then the subscription costs 9.99 euros per month.
Free audiobooks read by volunteers
The objective of Librivox is “to make available all public domain books, narrated by real people and distributed free of charge in audio format through the Internet.” This application works thanks to volunteers around the world, who record book chapters and publish them so that everyone can listen to them. Any person with a computer, a microphone, a recording application and their voice can collaborate. “We accept volunteers from all languages and with all kinds of accent,” says its creators.
The platform allows you to create and consult public collections, as well as search for books or explore by genres such as non -fiction, action and adventure or ancient texts, among others. Among the most popular authors are Edgar Allan Poe, Miguel de Cervantes, Santa Teresa, Dante Alighieri, Isabel Allende and Julio Verne. Some of the works recommended by the app include Don Quixote de la Mancha, El Prince, Alicia in Wonderland, the Odyssey either The Lazarillo de Tormes. There are also classic stories such as The three little pigs, Cinderella and Beauty and the beast. There are audiobooks in more than 20 languages, such as German, Arabic, Russian or Chinese and even Latin or ancient Greek.
Several narratives made by volunteers have a remarkable quality. The application, which includes advertising, allows you to adjust the reproduction speed, add markers to save specific narrative moments and establish a off timer. As the catalog consists exclusively of public domain works, some users may be missing more contemporary books. The creators of the app also warn that the books reflect the time in which they were written: “Since the books we read are in the public domain, our readers and listeners must take into account that many of them are very old and can contain language or express outdated concepts, in the best, offensive, offensive cases, in the worst.”
Book summaries in 15 minutes
“Most CEO read a book a week,” says Blinkist. Then, he points out that they do it thanks to apps of this type. Blinkist offers audio summaries and text of more than 7,500 non -fiction titles, in addition to Podcast and guides made by experts. Each summary is designed to be heard in just about 15 or 20 minutes. Although Blinkist does not replace the complete experience of reading a book, it is a useful option for those who do not have time to face volumes of hundreds of pages.
The catalog is not as wide as the audible one. In the adjustments of the appit is possible to choose in what language you want to access summaries. English is mandatory and cannot be deactivated, so recommendations will always appear in that language. The user can also add titles in Spanish. It is missing to include more books in this language. “We are working to bring content in Spanish. More titles will be available,” they say from Blinkist.
Among the most popular Spanish contents are Atomic habitsby James Clear; Steve Jobs. Leadership lessonsby Walter Isaacson; and The Lord of the Fliesby William Golding. Blinkist says that their summaries are made by experts, writers and editors, and that they collaborate with the original authors provided it is possible, to properly capture the essential ideas and the spirit of the book.
The basic plan is free and allows access to a shortlisted summary every day. The Premium Plan costs 79.99 euros a year and allows you to read or listen without connection the summary of any library title, save and organize books by collections and receive personalized recommendations. Abstracts can be sought by title or explore by topics such as money and investments, personal development, science, philosophy, history, politics, psychology or parenting. The app It also includes a tab called “shorts”, which offers daily micro -contributing in English – as questionnaires, appointments, videos and brief explanations of authors – to learn something new in just five minutes.
‘Apps’ to convert physical books into audiobooks
For those who prefer to listen to physical books, a simple, fast and free alternative is Google Lens. After opening the application, just take a photograph at one or two pages of the book, select the option “Select text” and then click on “Listen.” Thus, artificial intelligence will automatically read the text aloud. The main limitation is that you must take photos of the pages manually, which can be a bit tedious.
If you have a PDF of the book, the process is much simpler. In this case, applications such as Reader allow reading texts aloud directly. This app You can read both a document and a photo of a physical book. It stands out for a wide variety of voices generated by artificial intelligence, such as Arabella, with a “mature and confident” tone; Isidora, “warm and formal”; Tristan, “authoritarian and safe”; or Alessio, “expressive and optimistic.”
The app It offers a single voice for free and unlimited, while additional voices are available in the Plus version, which costs about 10 euros per month. This plan also includes the option to clone your own voice through artificial intelligence. In addition to choosing the narrator, Natural Reader offers the possibility of adjusting the reproduction speed, underlining fragments of the text and taking annotations at specific times. The main disadvantage of both Google Lens and Natural Reader is that the voices generated by AI tend to sound somewhat rootic, which can subtract naturalness to the experience of listening to a book.
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
