seems to me you have two fears-and the second one is not unique-I've been making charts for years to keep characters and families straight.
As to the vision-it is a sad fact that as our eyes age they do not focus as well. My glasses have multiple corrections in the lenses, but at night I just take them off and hold the book at a comfortable distance. Also, sight-saver print books don't annoy me quite as much as they used to-but I still don't love them. Yet. My s-i-l visited the dollar store and bought a pair of magnifying glasses, and they seem to help. My f-i-l, who dearly loves to read the newspaper every day, first went to a subscription to the USA Today in "sight-saver" print, and now he has a machine from the Blind Association that he can use to put the pages up on a screen, not unlike the computer monitor. Not as comfy as sitting in the recliner chair, but he can at least read it.
It boggles my mind what the opthamologists can do these days. I'm hoping that they keep up with me as my eyes change!

This is a fear for me too! So far my complicated bifocals are holding up. Like cece, I hope opthamology continues to keep up with me.

What is "sight-saver" print? Do you mean similar to the large print books? What bothers you about them? I seem to need stronger reading lenses each year is why I ask.

I too have this fear...I am very nearsighted and farsighted too. I have the lineless bifocals but found them difficult to find the right angle/distance for reading in bed, which I do daily. My opthalmologist told me to have reading glasses made up (my prescription is too strong for reading glasses you buy in the drugstore) in an old pair of frames for reading in bed. I have been doing that for years now and it is wonderful.

"Sight-saver" is the same as large-print...we just call it sight-saver at the library where I volunteer. It use to annoy the socks off me when I had to have a book in that HUGE print-had to turn the pages so quickly, etc. It doesn't seem so huge anymore! But I am beginning to worry now that there will not be enough books in that print when I really need it-we have patrons at the library that complain about that all the time.
They did make up computer/reading glasses for me when I went to the lineless multi-focals...Never used them at the computer, and when we redid the home-office they disappeared-I should hunt for them and see if reading with them works. Me eye-doctor doesn't have a problem with no-glasses reading, but it limits me when I want to read AND keep track of the game on TV.

My mother had macular degeneration, as did her three sisters and her brother. Her dearest loves were reading, stamp collecting, and quilting. Her last few years were very boring, but we did a lot of things to help her. The last, that worked quite a while, was a pair of glasses that the stamp store sold us for examining the tiny print on stamps. I think they were similar to a jeweler's glass. There is also a magnifying screen that fits over the TV and enlarges the picture.

She lived to within less than a month of her 94th birthday, and I heard her say to one of sisters once, "If we had died as young as Papa did (in his 70s), we would have never known we had this disease." I suppose outliving one's body parts or mind is everyone's greatest dread.

I know exactly what you mean.

About three years ago, I reached a point where I could no longer make out any letters. Cataracts on both eyes. Glasses no longer did a bit of good. I didn't want the operation and I could still see well enough to get around OK.

....BUT I simply could not stand not being able to read!! That was pure torture. Not only did I enjoy the stories, it was what I did to fill up spare time. I even missed the Newspaper and the crossword puzzle. I had the surgery done one morning and was able to read that afternoon. Piece of cake!!! I kicked myself for not having it done sooner.

I couldn't exist without books. Listening to tapes just isn't the same. Anyone that is having difficulty with their eyes has all my sympathy. Books are tooooo important.

The other thing that does help short-term is powerful lighting. Get yourself a bright bedside lamp, the kind that you can bend around to focus on your page. Craft stores sell Ott Lights which give you true color for handicrafts. I have been running around steadily jacking up the wattage in my bedroom and at sitting areas. As the population gets older there are more and more products of this sort on the market.

Brenda