Truth be told? When I am listening to an audiobook on the couch, I keep a copy of my favorite book near my face. Holding the book and feeling the pages, smelling that book smell, it helps me. I create a scene in my mind where I am reading what I am hearing, and it's a little happy place in my head. That may help while you are still learning braills.

Learn braille. If you have a reason for wanting to learn (like reading again), you'll learn more quickly. If you practise reading every day, as an avid reader you should be able to make progress more quickly than people who don't practise regularly.

The loss of books was the absolute hardest for me. I have tons of poems and writings I did about how much I missed books, and still do. The biggest tease of my life was when I briefly got my vision back (modern medicine!) and being able to read again was AMAZING. I cried when I read my first print book again. (I lost my vision as a teenager, regained it at 21 and lost it again at 23).

When I lost my vision a second time It was like a sucker punch. Mostly because of books.

I read braille now (I'm 29), I've worked really hard to get my skills up (I read something like 130-140 words per minute). But right now, with the virus, getting my hands on physical braille has been SO hard. I'm watching all my friends share tips on indie book stores and it's like experiencing the loss again. It's deeply frustrating.

My husband is also a book book lover. He has an absurd amount of books. And it's the first time I've been so surrounding by books. I actually find it suffocating. It's hard to be surrounded by something you used to love so deeply and not be able to do anything with it. Most of our house is effectively just paperweights.

I get it. I miss buying or borrowing books. I can’t go into a bookstore or library now without feeling sad.

I’m so sorry. I wasn’t a big reader but I can understand wishing so much for something you loved to be a reality again. I don’t have any advice but I’m glad you shared. You’re not alone.

This is what I dread the most as my vision loss progresses. I've been reading since I was three and it's my favorite thing to do. Right now I still have a good amount of usable vision left, so I switched to a Kindle. I hate audiobooks.

Thank you CloudyBeep for suggesting the Hadley courses. I'd heard of them, but not really considered them. Now I have a good reason to start.

All I can say is yes, absolutely the worst thing about not being able to see is not being able to read. It is painful, and braille is just too damn hard. I'm going to keep trying, though, I've just about got to the "see spot run" section.

I’m a librarian and a reader all my life. This is what I’m struggling with also, losing books. I’ve been reading on an iPad for years, or on my phone with audiobooks, but I work with books every day, and trying to find the perfect book for someone, a child, that turns that light bulb on and makes them a reader for life. I’m losing that, slowly. My dad didn’t learn to love reading until his vision was gone. I’ve loved reading like a best friend since I was 3 years old.

I miss it too and drawing, I was able to do it for hours.

I understand. I miss having stacks of books by my bedside and staying up late burning through pages. I miss the coziness of curling up on the couch with an old favorite. Audio books are nice but it's not the same.

I loved books until I lost my sight at 14. After that, I started with four track audio books and commercial books on tape, after that it was books on audio cd. It's great these days because I can listen to audio books or instantly download e books onto my computer or iPhone etc. I can read braille but never enjoyed it for actually reading books or magazines. I do miss actual books though as well as going to the library to find books.

I have a disability that sometimes gives me episodes where I have very bad vision for months at a time. I am also an avid reader and I run a blog where I post interesting quotes from the stuff I read. (I specialize in reading about religious studies.) Having to put it on hiatus because I couldn't read as fast as I used to really hurt me. Unfortunately I'm getting another episode that happens to coincide with quarantine time. I would try a large print book, but all the libraries in my county are closed, and although I use the zoom function to read books fairly easily, typing and copying them is harder for some reason. It's really frustrating.

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There should be some devices that has a camera as input and can translate text to braille, with little mechanical sticks in it so it can change itself