Samantha Adams is a former lawyer and self-described “audiobook addict” who has recently rediscovered her love of reading. Sam has been blind for many years, which makes her uniquely sensitive to the experience of listening to a book. Here, she talks about how she listens (the technology has certainly evolved since she started in the late '80s!) and how a good narrator can be the gateway to discovering wonderful new authors. She also opens up --- in lovely detail --- about how the audio experience can be so much richer than simply reading books in print.

Question: How long have you been listening to audiobooks?

Samantha Adams: I started listening to audiobooks in the late 1980s. At that time, I was a blind student majoring in English literature in university and then a law student. It was not for pleasure, and my listening skills needed some work. I am amazed that I did as well as I did in my classes.

After graduating from university in 1994, I entered the working world and tried to squeeze reading in on Saturday afternoons while chopping vegetables to make soup.

In 2008, I had a major lifestyle change and became an avid and voracious audiobook reader.

Q: What made you start listening?

SA: Obviously I started listening out of necessity, but then…

As a child, I was a voracious reader, and losing my eyesight took that pleasure away. It became a chore to “read,” and the pleasure was gone.

In 2008, I had a significant change in lifestyle. This involved moving to the United States from Canada to marry my American husband. I was no longer a single parent working 60 hours a week and trying to hold a household together all by myself. I began to expand my horizons, thinking outside the box and looking for that pleasure that was lost so long ago. I discovered various resources, and the rest is history.

Q: When and where do you listen?

SA: I listen everywhere: on public transit, the treadmill, the lobby at the gym between spin and yoga classes, in bed in the middle of the night with headphones, on the couch while I pretend to watch TV with my husband, in the sun in the backyard. I am pretty much obsessed. I always have my device with me, just in case I get bored somewhere. 

Q: What kinds of books do you like to listen to best?

SA: I like to listen to EVERYTHING!! Now, if I have to define my favorites, it would be fiction --- particularly historical fiction. 

Q: What do you use to listen to audiobooks?

SA: I use a device called a BookSense. It is a piece of adaptive technology designed for blind people and is about the size of a candy bar. It allows me to play with the reading rate of audiobooks. I usually speed them up significantly. At any given time I have about 50 books loaded on my BookSense. I don’t want to find myself bookless ever.

Q: Where do you buy/borrow audiobooks from?

SA: I get audiobooks from Bookshare, the National Library Service [an accessible online library for people with print disabilities], and also often from Audible.com.

Q: Do you share your audiobooks with anyone?

SA: No. I'm not sure how to do that with the way that I download them. I’m not even sure it is possible.

Q: Do you listen with anyone else, or is it a solo experience?

SA: It is mostly a solo experience. I currently have a book that I started with my husband. We started it together on vacation in mid-September. He fell asleep during the first chapter and wants me to wait to read the rest of the book with him. We have not touched the books since. I don’t think togetherness in reading is really working.

Q: What percentage of your reading is done via audiobooks?

SA: I would say 95% of my reading is done with audiobooks. Now, you might ask what other method I might use. Hmm...Well, I am not a braille reader. I do unfortunately find it necessary to scan books occasionally and then have my computer read them out loud. This only happens when the book I want to read is not available in an audible format. This is frequently the case with foreign books (Canadian included). Listening to my computer read is not nearly as entertaining and enjoyable as the human voices, but it is better than sacrificing some books entirely.

Q: Do you have favorite narrators?  If so, tell us about them.

SA: I especially like books where the author reads her own book. I have never had a negative experience when the author read his or her own work. I have read Joy Kogawa’s OBASAAN several times. She actually sings the little songs in the book. It is stunning and adds a whole new dimension to the listening experience.

Jeannette Walls narrates her own work as well. THE SILVER STAR, HALF BROKE HORSES and THE GLASS CASTLE are all favorites of mine. The author knows her own work so intimately and is able to add inflection and meaning where she intended it to be.

To use a Bookreporter.com term, I know that whenever I see a book narrated by Caroline Lee, I can be sure it will fall into the category of a “Bets On’” selection. I was first introduced to Ms. Lee via Kate Morton’s novels. I loved her narrating so much that I just looked for books she had narrated without knowing or recognizing the titles or authors. I have never been disappointed. She is a prolific narrator, which is good for me --- I am not about to run out of Caroline Lee recordings in the near future. It is because of Ms. Lee that I found Belinda Alexander and Liane Moriarty (LITTLE BIG LIES). Her narration is engaging and animated. You can hear her eyes rolling as she reads the dialogue of a teenage girl, and you can feel the disapproval in her eyes as others look on in judgment. I think that Ms. Lee’s narration encourages my own imagination to more vividly create detailed book scenes in my head. For this reason, she is a welcome complement to the books that she reads.

Q: What are some of the most memorable books that you have listened to and why?

SA: Audiobooks have a distinct benefit that doesn’t come with print books. Hearing the book can create an atmosphere that your own creative mind might not fully develop. Two distinct examples of this atmosphere are THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak and THE SHADOW IN THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Both books have a haunting quality to them that comes alive when listened to in audio format. THE BOOK THIEF is narrated by Death, and his voice had me sitting on edge as I read the book. It was like the character was whispering over my shoulder. It was kind of creepy and unsettling. THE SHADOW IN THE WIND is a gothic story that also created that same haunting atmosphere. I was almost a bit uncomfortable reading the book late at night alone in the house. I say almost because the novel was so engaging that I could not put it down. 

In ROOM by Emma Donoghue, the voice of the young boy telling the story comes alive in the audio format. I found that his voice penetrated my entire being and remained with me long after I had finished the book. Of course, the author should receive credit for creating the voice; but when read aloud, the voice becomes even more powerful. 

Audiobooks also have the added dimension of allowing the listener to hear the characters’ various accents. This is especially notable in Maeve Binchy’s novels and Ken Follett’s FALL OF GIANTS. The narrators in both these books are able to distinguish between the subtleties of a Welsh, Scottish, Irish and British accent. Perhaps these nuances are not so subtle to someone who lives in the British Isles; however, for my untrained ear, the accents are not always available in my head. I also love to hear books about the South and listen to the Southern accents. Examples of this are THE HELP, DOLLBABY, THE INVENTION OF WINGS, SOUTH OF BROAD, GONE WITH THE WIND…the list goes on. The added dimension of the accents brings the book alive.

Audiobooks truly make for a full-bodied reading experience.

Q: What is the last audiobook you listened to? Tell us about it.

SA: I just finished reading THE CHILDREN ACT by Ian McEwan. I am not sure that this book in audio format gave any different experience than the text format. The plot is fairly simple. I would call this a “character-driven” novel. McEwan uses a minimal number of words to develop three distinctly different characters. He develops the relationships between Fiona and Adam, and Fiona and her husband, and then leaves it for the reader to interpret. The novel is a narrow glimpse into the lives of these three people, and the reader, Lindsay Duncan, is left to imagine where the characters were before and where they go after. 

Q: Is there anything about the format of audiobooks that you don’t like or you would like to see changed or improved?

SA: Occasionally Audible.com books have a brief interview with the author at the conclusion of the book. I wish they would do this more often. I love to hear the author’s voice right then and there and not to have to search it out myself on the Internet. Sometimes it just doesn’t even matter what the content is. I just want to hear the voice that goes with the words.