We've been known, on occasion, to have discussions about ways of reading books on this sub. If you've ever participated in any of those comment chains, or are just interested in a more in-depth discussion of the topic, I highly recommend this book. It sets out not only to trace the history of the talking book from the 1880's, all the way through to today, but also to take up interesting questions like "What is reading?" "What is a book anyway?" "Are reading and listening different, and if so, how?" Even though the book wasn't written by someone who is part of our community, the author takes a fair and even-handed look at the debates the blind community had about "talking books" in the 1930's; some believed that talking books might replace Braille, and that they were entirely unnecessary and shouldn't be produced. It also covers the debates in the 60's over how, exactly, a talking book should be read, as well as the difficulties in adapting some kinds of books into audio. The afterword even has a brief discussion on text to speech, and how it is changing , and will continue to change, the audio book landscape.

While I'm usually almost totally against "blindness books", or books that would somehow be of special interest to the blind community, I'm glad I gave this one a chance anyway. It exposed me to opinions I don't agree with (and some I do) and facts I didn't know, while making me think about what my own opinions are and why. And what more can you ask of a nonfiction book? I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads. The only reason I didn't give it the full 5 stars is because the author is extremely detail oriented. He'd rather repeat himself on multiple occasions in multiple places, than risk missing even the smallest corner of his subject. For example, The chapter on the founding of talking book libraries in the US, and the chapter on the founding of talking book libraries in the UK, could have been combined into one. As it is, they're both just different people saying the same things. The book was published by Harvard Press though, so there are probably perfectly valid academic reasons for including two chapters that are so similar in content. They just didn't make for interesting reading for those of us who aren't part of academia.

I got my copy from the CELA Library in Canada. The audio book version was originally produced by Blackstone Audio though, so I suspect it's available in multiple places internationally.