This was a fascinating story of Andrew Leland's journey to the country of the blind. Going blind is one of my biggest fears! Reading this was a slightly terrifying but also very enlightening.

Courageous and honest account of Leland's descent into blindness. Avoids sentimentality or pity and examines his worsening condition with pragmatism and bravery. It reveals so many things that those us with full sight take for granted and never even consider. A sad but fascinating and moving read.

The book is wide-ranging, which some readers may appreciate, but those who pick it up mostly for the autobiographical element may find the profusion of detail on assistive and medical technologies, activists and organizations overwhelming. It is most engaging when we get glimpses of Leland's own blindness journey or go along with him on his travels, such as to a National Federation of the Blind convention in Florida and to one of its residential training courses in Colorado, where he was given sleep shades to simulate total blindness and received lessons in cooking and cleaning. As well as giving a practical rundown of the various causes of blindness and attempts to mitigate it, the book launches a philosophical enquiry into what it means. Is it a formative trait, or something to be resisted? ...

In his first book, Andrew Leland shares his experience of going blind. He borrows its title from the Latin saying “In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” H.G. Wells had a short story with the same title in which he imagined the country of blind people who don’t even know that seeing exists. In anticipation of becoming completely blind one day, Andrew Leland upends this experience by venturing on an exploration of the world of blind. He knows the world of seeing, what he wants to know is how to live when you no longer see. Interestingly, some blind people he talked to treat this moment as liberation from a constant worry of when or how it would happen. Leland's view is that “the life of a blind person is never fully (or even predominantly) defined by their blindness.” In that there is a lesson for all of us. As we follow Leland to the radical blindness center among other places, we learn about the history of blind community, how blind people find a way to have a full life and how they feel about the way they are sometimes treated. It's an eye-opening book full of Leland's introspective empathetic musings that go well beyond personal.. Highly recommended..

So often we think of being already being in their state of disability. But what about the phases before? Coming into the reality that will soon be your future. As someone who has recently started this journey, I found Leland's story both helpful and sobering.
Even those who are not facing a life altering change, I believe this gives a wonderful insight of what that experience is like.
Leland does a wonderful job exploring the world of the blind, both for himself and others.

This is a really good autobiography that accompanies the author on his trip into blindness...the cover is especially attractive (not that that is showing on Netgalley) and not that anyone who is blind can appreciate the cover but let's just say it is nicely showing people getting around whilst having low or no vision.

I don't know a lot about retinitis pigmentosa other than when it was a story on "The YOjng and The Restless" .. I had to google it to remember when it was a storyline....1993! (Y&R is on from 4.30 - 5.30 in Canada so it was always on during dinner prep after work at the college library!)

The author is unflinching in the story of his sight loss but presents a lot of help for people by suggesting organizations that can help low vision or completely blind persons. (Yes, the wait for a guide dog is long: often up to 2 years and it costs up to $30,000 to train a dog which is why I donate monthly to the CNIB.) There is humour to be found as well so the book is not a total bummer.

I will highly recommend this book and make sure that we get it in DAISY format for those who are sight and print-disabled - it is often hard to justify getting those books vs. audiobooks (the committee thinks audio books are more "accessible" as all you need is a phone or computer) but this one is the perfect fit.

Great read.

#shortbutsweetreviews

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
The cover of this book immediately caught my attention because of the images. I'm slowly losing my vision too and a lot of the author's thoughts and experiences were relatable to me.
I mostly picked this book to learn of his experience and how he mentally dealt with vision loss. He weaves his story with information about blindness in history as well as the organizations that have been created to assist low vision and blind people to live independently.
Fascinating book!