Linda Johnson is a former newspaper columnist and longtime devotee of Bookreporter.com. Now she works part-time in a small university library and is very active with her local chapter of Friends of the Library. She’s been listening to audiobooks for 15 years now, and has accumulated much audio wisdom through the years. Here, she discusses converting from old technologies to new ones, how listening can be a shared experience --- even when you’re technically listening solo --- and why you should probably not listen to John Waters’ CARSICK in a public place.

Question: How long have you been listening to audiobooks?

Linda Johnson: I have been listening to audiobooks for 15 years.

Q: What made you start listening?

LJ: I took a teaching job that meant a 35-minute commute on a good traffic day. The library near my school was much larger than my local library and had vast audio offerings. On their shelf, I discovered Susan Hill’s MRS. DE WINTER, which I recognized as a familiar name from one of my favorite novels, Daphne Du Maurier’s REBECCA. I listened to that and was instantly hooked.

Q: When and where do you listen?

LJ: I listen mostly in the car or at work. My commute is now only three minutes, so the car isn’t the treasure trove it once was. I work evenings in a small university library and listen while I’m working. Some days it is easier to listen than others.

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

LJ: Nonfiction seems to be easiest for me to keep my mind from wandering, but I also listen to humor and literary fiction. I also find it a good way to listen to a book series (Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, Jan Karon’s Mitford series).

Q: What do you use to listen to audiobooks?

LJ: My car has a built-in four-disc CD player. At work, I listen through my iPad. I also have an iPod available. I only recently downloaded a book for that, which I have not listened to yet. On my recent trip to NYC, I finished my CD book and didn’t have a replacement. Fortunately, I have a car kit that allows me to hook up my iPad through the cassette player and listen through the car’s speakers. (I listened to books on cassette until my husband banned them from me because he wasn’t going to fish one more worn-out tape out of the cassette player.) I have also listened to Playaways, but their availability seems to be waning.

Q: Are the books that you listen to different from the kinds of print and eBooks you read?

LJ: No, the books are usually similar, but I have found that I need to be careful about what I listen to because I can become distracted enough to make the playing audiobook sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher --- noise in the background.

Q: Where do you buy/borrow audiobooks from?

LJ: For CDs or Playaways, I borrow from my local library and heavily rely on their interlibrary loans to find what I want. I use the library’s Ohio eBook project to download audios for my iPad.

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

LJ: Mostly alone, but when my husband (who is a big audiobook listener, too) and I go on the World’s Longest Yard Sale, we always make sure we have something to listen to.

Often when I listen at work, I’m alone in the library lobby and listen without headphones or earbuds. That was the case while I was listening to THE SUPREMES AT EARL’S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT. I had a student worker, who said she didn’t mind if I listened. After a bit, she asked what I was listening to; she had been drawn in. I helped her download the book to her iPad. The next time she came into work, she got just inside the lobby, stopped and wailed, “Odette’s going to die!” (I didn’t spoil a thing there.) She was hooked.

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

LJ: A guess would be somewhere between 40 and 50 percent.

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

LJ: Definitely. John McDonald narrated the Mitford series by Jan Karon. The combination of the narrator and the story was the perfect detox after a day in the classroom. C. J. Critt’s reading of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels was like a one-woman show. I trudged through reading Hilary Mantel’s WOLF HALL. But I listened to Simon Vance read the follow-up, BRING UP THE BODIES, which made it a breeze. He also does a magnificent job reading THE BURNABLE BOOK. Tim Curry did a deliciously sinister job on the A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Daniel Handler. Frank McCourt reading TEACHER MAN was music to this retired teacher’s ears.

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

LJ: TEACHER MAN by Frank McCourt, because I felt like I “knew” many of those same students. A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA by Anthony Marra was heartbreaking but beautifully written. Jan-Philipp Sendker’s THE ART OF HEARING HEARTBEATS is the most beautiful love story. Understanding the change in the protagonist is miraculous and healing. Anything written by Carl Hiaasen is so humorous, there is never a chance for my mind to wander. I read the Harry Potter series to my son at bedtime each night, but we did listen to some on long car trips. I was amazed that the narrator, Jim Dale, had stolen MY Hagrid voice for his rendition!

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

LJ: Sometimes I have difficulty with the volume, especially on my iPad. Sometimes the volume isn’t loud enough without an earpiece.

When I listen to CDs, I prefer to hear “this is the end of disc #,” especially when it’s the final disc. Without that warning, I often start listening again to a disc that I had already heard. (My disc player is low on the dash.)

I really wish abridged books were better marked as such. I want to listen to the entire book but have occasionally gotten the CD home, only to find out it is an abridgement.

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

LJ: CARSICK: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America is the strangest book I’ve listened to. I thought it was nonfiction, but it turned out that two-thirds of it is actually fiction. The first section was “best rides” and the second “worst rides.” It was only after I got to “real rides” that I realized John Waters had made up the previous tales. Also, I was very glad that when I decided to listen to this on my iPad at work, I chose to listen with earbuds. Suffice it to say, that was one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made.