A Sense of the World - Book 33

This book was so gripping to me! I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed learning about James Holman, the blind traveler. I listend to it on audio in my car. I had a couple of weeks of driving my daughter back and forth to music camp. It takes about 30 or 40 minutes each way so I knew I needed a good book to listen to in the car to avoid going crazy. I also had lots of other driving around to do as well. I found this audio recording at my local library.

James Holman was an apothecary's son, born in 1786, whose father connived to get him into the Royal Navy at age 12. This was very common at that time. Holman spent his time in the Northern waters of the Atlantic off the coast of Canada for the most part. The terrible cold and damp he was exposed to seemed to have caused rheumatoid arthritis. Over the years, he suffered terrible bouts that put him into the hospital. Finally he was sent to Bath, to the mineral waters there, that hopefully would relieve him of his suffering. It did, but while there he suddenly became blind. He was 25 years old. He had worked his way up to Lieutenant by that time. He was on half-pay but he knew that with his blindness that pay could be stopped at any time. He didn't want to burden his family, so he applied to become a Naval Knight, which was an organization set up in a rich man's will, that would provide room and board for an infirmed and impoverished naval officer on the condition that they remain unmarried and pray twice a day at the services of the church at Windsor. Holman managed to snag one of these positions. But he discovered it was not as ideal as he thought. He was bored out of his skull! He wound up talking the board that managed the will, into letting him study medicine at the University of Edinburgh! After he completed his studies there, he was sent to the Mediterranean area to help improve his health. And it worked! Holman discovered he loved to travel and that the thrill of traveling as a blind man was just the ticket for good health. He wound up traveling all over the world. The story of his adventures are fascinating. And so much history is uncovered as you follow him around the globe.

Jason Roberts, the author, writes an absolutely fabulous account. I was sad when the book ended. I felt like I'd lost a friend, he made the wonderful character of the intrepid James Holman so real.

The reader of the book has a great British accent, but I do think he garbled some of his words. And it wasn't just that he was pronouncing them the British way; he just sometimes pronounced words funny! However, it wasn't enough to be irksome, rather it just made him a bit idiosyncratic which was kind of fitting to the story!

This book gets a very hearty two thumbs up from me! For more book reviews, please go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.