I am able to read using an electronic magnifier, Merlin. I was an extreme reader before my vision loss and in the first three years after, I had neither the sight nor the technology to do so. But now I can once again devour title after title, and often wonder how I survived without it for over one thousand days.
With the Merlin, the book lays on a tray and you move the tray as you read across lines and down to the next, as you look up at the words on the monitor above. I find that it works best if I put another book under the left side of the book I’m reading to balance out the two sides until you get halfway through. Otherwise, the book doesn’t lay flat and blurring can occur. I often check the total number of pages when I start a book so I have an idea where the middle is and can remove the supportive extra book at that point.
In life, we don’t know when the end will be so we can’t determine where the middle is. We can guesstimate; if I live to be 90 I am already seven “pages” past halfway and although it’s not something we dwell on, we are all aware of the potential maximum size of our stories. The minimum, well, that information exists solely with our publisher.
Wherever you are in your novel, I hope it is epic: filled with romance, a little mystery, triumph over plot twists and turns and love. And like the books I read, I hope that you are supported, but not just through your first-half chapters but until The End.
