I was never the kid who sat on a beanbag in the corner with a book in her hands.
I picked books up often enough but rarely got past the first few pages. I visited my local library but never felt that pull to sit and read. My hands would get fidgety, my brain would flit from one thing to another, and I’d rather watch a Disney film or play with my Bratz dolls.
Then, when I was eleven, I read Cookie by Jacqueline Wilson cover to cover, and it changed everything.
The pride I felt finishing that book was monumental: a warm, fuzzy sensation that filled me to the brim. I connected with the story, felt what the characters felt, and it opened my mind and my heart at once. From then on I wanted to consume stories like oxygen. Over the years I found my favourite authors, worked through childhood classics, adult classics, bestsellers and rare finds. Now I want to write my own books, create my own stories, and be a full-time author.
Reading became a passion, one I never expected to find when I was eleven years old picking up that Jacqueline Wilson book. I went on to study English at university, then chose to do a creative writing and publishing master’s.
Until my sight began to change.
After a terrifying few weeks of appointments, tests and a hospital stay during the COVID pandemic, I was diagnosed with optic atrophy linked to my CMT (Charcot-Marie-Tooth). My optic nerves had thinned beyond repair. The thing I feared most wasn’t the diagnosis itself: it was the thought that I might have to say goodbye to books. For someone whose whole world had been built around stories, losing access to them felt like losing a part of myself.
Then I discovered audiobooks.
Sitting in the hospital with nothing but my phone and some ear pods, I began listening to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Pressing play wasn’t a distraction; it was a lifeline. I escaped into another world, far away from the antiseptic tickling my nose and the fresh needle mark on my bruised tailbone.
Since that dreadful stretch in early 2021, my reading experience has changed for the better. I’ve become fully addicted to audiobooks, some more than others, and I’ll be sure to share my recommendations. Five years on, with the help of supplements and prescription glasses, my nerves are stable enough that I can read physically again too. I love curling up with a blanket and a cup of tea. Nothing beats the feel of paper and the weight of a book on my lap, even though my eyes tire faster than they used to. There’s also the Kindle, which I’ve started using for its accessible features, perfect for hospital waiting rooms and poolside holidays, soaking up the sun along with my factor fifty.
And that brings me to why I created Blind Book Lady. The truth is, I like talking all things books. I want to introduce you to titles you may never have heard of, and to talk about the popular ones that have become woven into our culture. I want to share my favourite audiobooks and my adventures, and maybe one day my own book and my writing journey too.
The name Blind Book Lady represents everything this journey has taught me. Being visually impaired changed the way I experience books, but it never changed my love for them. Stories belong to everyone, regardless of how we read them.
So whether you read with your eyes, your ears, or both, I hope you’ll join me. Let’s discover new worlds, share our favourite stories, and celebrate the books that stay with us long after the final page.