Escape from Here.

Books have always been my escape. As a hearing impaired child, and now as a hearing impaired adults, books are the one place where I'm never out of the loop. Everyday conversation is tiring because I expend so much energy just listening and processing everything I'm hearing, and making up for what I can't hear. My brain is constantly using its powers of deductive reasoning to fill in blanks. There are so many variables that affect the quality of my interactions with people-- a female voice is often easier to understand than a male voice, people mumble or cover their mouths when they speak, they look away while speaking, they don't enunciate, background noise interferes with my ability to discern speech, if I have a cold and I'm congested, I can't hear, if my hearing aids need to be adjusted, I can't hear.
But in a book, none of that matters. The only thing that trips me up is an unknown word here or there that I can look up in a dictionary. I can follow all the conversations and never feel lost (unless the writing just plain sucks, in which case, the book goes back on the shelf...). There are no awkward moments caused by answering a question with something from left field.
Books are a time-honored prescription for anyone that does not fit in a certain box. Whatever ails you, there's a book that'll make you feel like you belong, a book that won't judge you, a book that'll make you feel included and keep you in the loop.
I wanted to end this post with a list of books aimed at specific ailments, a la The Little Paris Bookshop but the truth is, I devour the books, take what I need from them, and then move on to the next one, so I'd be hard-pressed to proffer a list of books off the top of my head--the downside of being a escape artist, I guess. But you can take this neat Book Apothecary for a spin and see what comes up! Just click the book cover below.

Click the book to try out the apothecary! 

Disclosure: This post was inspired by the novel The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, where Monsieur Perdu--a literary apothecary--finally searches for the woman who left him many years ago.. Join From Left to Write on October 8th as we discuss The Little Paris Bookshop. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes. This post contains affiliate links.