The Librivox.org Vibes Are Truly Great

    How would I summarise my experience so far as a volunteer reader for Librivox.org?

    I guess in 2 words: pretty cool!

    So what's Librivox.org all about?

    Well, I think of it as an audio LIBRary of public domain works read by voices of all races, creeds, genders, ages (the voxes).

    So how would I characterise or rate it? 

    Well, here are the top 5 features I think that make it just dandy.

    For one, it's a Canadian invention. I quite respect that as Canadians are known to be a bit more sane and level-headed than those rowdy Americans (I point at myself, sometimes).  Its origins by Hugh McGuire can be found on Wikipedia (here). But it's really a honest kind of endeavor--which leads me to its second feature.     

    They recognise the gargantuan task of having artistic printed works re-distributed through the medium of the good ole' human voice--the kind that is unique and which shouldn't have to be homogenised, right? (Ahem, you nasty AI bots out there!). Plus, reading from Public Domain works is like a pretty darn cool idea. I mean, you don't step on anyone's copyright toes AND you get to revisit classics and the literary arts of prior centuries through the original meidum of human story-telling--through a human voice--literally, on a microphone. I guess that makes that number three, or third great thing about Librivox.org.

    By the way, when have we ever seen good things happen by way of team effort? Okay, yeah, maybe sometimes when we were in our dysfunctional families or in the classroom; in corporate board rooms? (not a chance--all smokes and mirrors!), in Congress (definitely a duh, not!). Okay, you get my point. So isn't it nice to see that something somewhat more universally viewed as 'for the greater good' as having the huge Public Domain works tackled collaboratively?  Volunteers across all walks of life basically take up sections of a vast written work from a century or more ago in their own voice and basically finish off tens of thousands upon thousands of words altogether!  Say it now with me--TEAMWORK ROCKS! You just know that the powers that be out there don't like it ever if the public were to band together to fight for something good, yeah? I don't think politicians or governments, let alone big companies ever truly want a bunch of employees or the public do inng something together as it would create a storm, especially nerve-wrecking if it was not in their favor, yeah? Well, sadly, I guess that's why some storms have to drummed up for free.

    Yeah, volunteer work means charity work, but might I add, that unless you were retired, that even most retired people (as I imagine because I am clearly still in need to strike it rich to feed myself in my deepest decadent desires!)--like as I was going to say, even retired people and non-retired people alike do want to make some difference in the world, and this is just one authentic way to do it by lending our real human voice to words from dead authors who couldn't do it back then and bring it to the fore for generations to hear the story through our own humanity.

    So, didn't I say it was about people--humans and teamwork? Well, it certainly does show when the folks handling the Proof Listening and leading the forums on these collaborative works are like the nicest and gentlest people that you'll like ever receive comments from about your audio work. I mean, despite the quality of our audio work not being like topnotch studio perfect-like. I mean, we are taking our precious free time and pimping our vocal beats for free to do this, but it does makes for a wholly pleasant experience when clearly it shows that the rhetoric is directed by the bigger picture of getting more Public Domain works into audio form which would outweigh any rude or critical or just nit-picking specifics by any perfectionistic tendencies of either forum leader(s) and/or reader(s) (and I definitely have a mirror held up to myself--I seem to border on dysfunctional perfectionist, actually, I must admit--BUT when I'm done, I don't keep obsessing about my submitted work afterwards which shows I'm not that unhealthy, right?).

     Okay, so in the world wide web of scams, shams, and thank-you-ma'ams-and-m'sieurs, it's so hard these days to find something genuinely wholesome and just old-fashioned chummy in doing something for the good of humanity without those damn meddling tech giants or powerful companies swinging their big-d*** cash around to just turn every internet user into pawns or digital slaves. So I'd say, Librivox.org (at least for now) is one of those in the categories as being "SAFE" to contribute to without feeling like you're packaging your existential purpose away for those blood-sucking CEOs or billionaire-clubber types.

    So Librivox.org is how I got my lips wet in getting back into something a professor in college once put my thoughts on thinking about doing. He complimented me on my voice, like as if I should have done radio. Years on, I just hope my voice hasn't gotta too raspy or old from unrealised use! Hopefully, you'll think the same and give me some more needed encouragement by checking out my Librivox.org reader profile and listen to some of my already finished volunteered audio work!

Librivox.org Reader #17833

 

     Thanks for visiting!