Converts images & PDF files to text.

tts.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Converts images & PDF files to text.
# See http://ericheikes.com/converting-books-to-mp3-audio-text-to-speech
#

# Concatenate all the files.
cat "$@" > out.txt

# Combine words that are broken (with hyphens) across lines.
perl -0777 -i -pe 's/(\S+)-\n\s*(\S+)/$1$2/ig' out.txt

# Convert the text to speech.
text2wave out.txt -o out.wav -eval "(voice_us2_mbrola)"

# Encode as MP3.
lame -V5 out.wav out.mp3

# Clean up.
rm out.wav