I miss reading actual books so much. I still have a few books from before I lost my vision that I hang on to. I’ve adapted to audiobooks but it’s just not the same. I miss feeling the paper and turning the page. Actual bookmarks or even (gasp!) turning down the corner of the page. I miss seeing a note scribbled inside the margins of used books. I miss the smell of them. My family thinks it’s weird and that I should just completely embrace audiobooks, but I don’t know if I ever truly will. Hubby suggested I listen to an audiobook while holding a paper book to trick my brain lol.

ETA I’m currently listening to Project Hail Mary on BARD and it’s great so far. A truly science focused sci-fi that I think was recommended by someone n this sub iirc. It’s being made into a film soon I think.

I really want to get the leatherbound covers of some of Brandon Sanderson’s books. I can’t read them, but I’m sure they’re beautiful and it’ll be amazing to have a little collection going.

As a braille reader, I don’t have the room. I wish I did, but braille books are just so big.

Uh yes. I will never get rid of my physical books. These days I use the kindle app with the font huge or turn on Voiceover with speech off to read on my Braille display but I still love knowing that I have other worlds and a font of knowledge on my shelves.

I do. And I don’t like audiobooks. Braille books have a nice smell too. I’ve been blind since birth, but I’ve still got some treasured print books.

Love books and have several in my collection from both fore my vision loss. If you are visually impaired and live in the US, you can get free audio books from the Library of Congress. It's a wonderful service. Your state's agency for the blind can help get you set up.

Absolutely, after losing my sight I still replaced a copy of a series that I love that was lost in the events that took my sight, and I still plan to buy physical copies of that authors nex books.

I have/had thousands of books, was the child of a voracious reader who encouraged us to read in multiple languages.

I spend hours on audible, etc trying to find 'my' books and failing. Most of mine are classics, or written before 1970, etc. I also have an audible account in multiple languages, which is getting to expensive, so have to find alternatives.

And audible sucks quite often, when there is a poor narrator. I just listened to one located in Berlin, with supposedly German characters, and the narrator couldn't get even the most simple German words right, or German names ie the names of the characters. Really awful.

I'm also learning to use my Kindle with Alexa or other read aloud functions.

Great topic.

If you get a chance Ray Porter is an AMAZING narrator. He can do so many different voices and do them WELL that you forget it’s only one person talking.

I recommend listening the Project Hail Mary by the same author who wrote The Martian (Matt Damon movie).

They’ll be making the book into a movie at some point. Can’t wait for it.

I collect audio books. Always happy to share, just DM :).

I was an am still such a book worm. I too miss the pitfalls of a physical book vs. an audiobook. I definitely have a few hard copies of books, some gifts and some self acquired.

That being said! Shifting over to audiobooks has perpetually braudened my lifetime reading journey. It has also allowed me to embrace my inner multitasker like nothing else. Especially while wading through college.

Nonetheless, as someone for which who an audiobook is a necessity I do not believe some services should charge as much as they do. So after using Google play which I like and recommend as an affordable option, nothing beats BARD Mobile, Libby, and even Overdrive.

Lastly, I too agree that the right narrator can make or break an audiobook. Some reading recommendations include; Mercy by David Baldacci, Always Mine by Nicole Baart, The Perfect Wife by Blake Pierce, and Barred To You by Sylvia Day. Happy Reading!!! 😀😃😜🤪

Yes! Because I find audiobooks across different platforms, I like to have a physical collection of my favorite books. I even photograph them on Instagram a lot.

I don’t collect physical books no but I have a huge ebook library on ibooks and kindle about over 700 or 800 books at the last count most of them are nonfiction there’s a few fiction too, I am much more of a nonfiction reader though. I have books of all sorts. I mostly read them with voice over or through braille with a braille display. I have a few cheap ones and one that works exceptionally. I was reading one the other day. But yes collecting ebooks is really nice. I love to learn and read. I find I don’t like audio because I comprehend thick stuff better if I read it in braille. I have audible and most of the books on there are fiction and lighter fantasy type novels.

I went blind in my early twenties, and I had only gotten super into books in the last few years of my vision loss. I had a decent collection, but got rid of most of them when moving out of my parents’ house. I definitely kept physical copies of my few favorites. I’ve thought about buying physical copies of my favorite books post-blindness, but I just haven’t talked myself into doing it. It took me a good long while to get used to audio books. I’ve ben using Audible, so I’m not sure of the quality of readers from other sources, but Audible usually goes all out. I’ve learned to love that I can put an old, familiar book on while doing house chores or going to sleep. If it’s a new book I only read when that’s the thing I’m doing. I whish they made a physical book that played out the audio so I could hold the book while listening to it.Like, you wouldn’t get the audio of the next page until you physically turned to it. Hey I think I’ve got a good idea here. Someone make it happen?

I do like the thought and idea of physical books, and even find it very pleasurable to smell and hold one in my hands. But, since, I can't use them, I have little to no physical books. Whatever physical book I get, I just scan it, perform OCR and keep the accessible copy. Don't have time and space to maintain and store physical books. And yes, if a soft copy is not available, I have the option of converting a hard copy in to an accessible soft copy under our copyright act of our country.

As far as my personal library, I have a huge collection of Epub and PDF files, I won't go in to legality of that here. Don't ask me.

Edit: Braille books are also very bulky. I have only 2 of them, and those are actually tactile maps. We have a braille newspaper available, but, I get way more detailed and quicker news from the internet.