Just this week I had the privilege of helping order my grandmother’s winter supply of books for the Digital Talking Book Machine to get her through the cold, lonely days and evenings when she can’t putter in her yard. The Tennessee Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped provides the machines, which are similar to a tape recorder/cassette player, for those with sight impairment. This good old Digital Talking Book Machine is what opened up the world to me very shortly after I was struck with LHON. Books and reading were an important part of my life and losing the ability to read was a primary reason for my post-sight loss depression. I still have many print books that I cannot part with even though I can no longer read them. The content of those books is so precious to me. I once read every word with my sight.
The good old Digital Talking Book Machine sort of paralleled my introduction to technology via the iPod. I eventually graduated from the DTBM to web-based downloads on my iPhone and iPad and continued to wrap my world in the audio realm of books like the alphabet series by Sue Grafton IN ORDER beginning with A is for Alibi all the way to her final one simply titled X. I’m equally fond of the series by Martha Grimes that follows her English character Superintendent Richard Jury. Michael Connelly’s books about detective Harry Bosch’s cases in L.A. intrigue me and I’ve read every title by Harlen Coben about protagonist Myron Bolitor. The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Jonathan Kellerman’s books about detective Alex Delaware, and the Jake Brigance series by John Grisham are also at the top of my favorites list.
The TN Library for the Blind reached out to the sister libraries in Ohio and Idaho to fulfill my grandmother’s request to sit in her special chair, right there in her den, and visit Cornwall in England with five books by Rosamund Pilcher. She’ll go to a cattle ranch in early Montana and the Northern Plains when her Digital Talking Book Machine reads A Bride Goes West by Nannie Alderson. She’ll call on Elmwood Springs, Missouri and discover what strange things are occurring at the cemetery there when she listens to The Whole Town’s Talking by Fannie Flagg. I’ve assured her the macular degeneration that’s robbed her sight in a way similar to mine does not have to defeat her. She can still explore this magnificent world by just punching the BIG GREEN PLAY ARROW.
#digitaltalkingbookmachine #tennesseelibraryfortheblind #LHON #lebershereditaryopticneuropathy
