Loved this book.
Hilariously funny yet heart wrenching. I love the authors attitude and it’s proved to be incredibly impactful on what he’s managed to achieve.
Definitely recommend this book, it really makes you consider barriers and what you can really achieve when you want to.

Excellent story of a man finding his way in a world not often designed for those with disabilities. It’s an easy, conversational writing style and a fairly short read, so I found I raced through it quickly, frequently inspired by Samuels’ drive and work ethic. Highly recommend reading to gain an understanding how how life can be for those with disabilities, and how we can be better allies.

I have different disabilities than blindness, but I still felt what you were saying. It made me think of my own struggles as a person with disabilities. It also gave me more motivation to get my autobiography out there.

My dad has Retinitis Pigmentosa - the same as John Samuel - and just like the author, his disability played a massive role in his life story. Because I am so familiar with the struggles my dad faced, it was hard to read Samuel’s words without being overwhelmed by emotion.

I found this memoir - it reads like a memoir, at least - to be a good reflection of what visually impaired persons deal with daily. I enjoy that the author is able to recognise those areas where he has privilege, and those areas where he can help others. Although his initial refusal to accept/face his disability is infuriating, I was relieved to see him growing into eventual acceptance.

While the book is readable, and one I will encourage others to read, I have some gripes. One is that it is unclear whether this is meant to be memoir, or motivational reading. One might think those two can (and do) overlap, but I find that books are more successful when they lean more firmly towards one or the other, rather than attempting to straddle both. When a memoir leans too much toward the motivational kind of genre, it can become biased towards positive experiences, and it becomes more difficult to “trust” the author.

Second, I think the title of the book is tongue-in-cheek, and probably has an element of an inside joke - but it doesn’t quite show itself in the work, and it makes for a sense of disjointedness. Likewise, the tagline, referring to “a 30,000-mile journey” - while distance and travel are not really thematically emphasised throughout the narrative in such a way that the content streamlines with the tag.

Lastly, while I think the use of facts is critical in a book about disability and accessibility, it would have worked better for the author to share the facts in his own words, rather than to extract quotes from published statistical reports.

All that said, this remains a book I will recommend to persons both seeing, and not.

This a memoir, but it really excels in being a critique and reflection of society’s treatment of disabled people. It excels in being a case study for the importance of accessibility and an accessible world.
I saw a similar review to mine state that they preferred this side of it, to the authors life achievements, and I do have to agree.

It’s so amazing to see other disabled people thriving, but often those thriving are, sadly, the exception in this current world. It’s also hard for us to thrive without becoming inspo p**n.
There’s also a side of it where, I know we work 1000x harder than non-disabled people to get anywhere, so celebrate the wins, fair enough!

Ultimately, I most related to the long journey of slowly identifying as being disabled, slowly coming into your needs. Struggling as a child. It also helped me connect with my blind partner, who has a similar childhood.

Sharing your story in a raw and humorous way is commendable.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy

When John Samuel starts to lose his vision, and is diagnosed with an incurable degenerative eye disease, both him and his parents struggle to accept his new reality and he tries to carry on as normal. Overcoming his deteriorating sight to climb Kilimanjaro and to be a successful businessman amongst other things whilst still accepting his access needs was frustrating to read but yet entirely understandable. It would have been interesting to delve more into his families reactions to his condition as it was only mentioned in passing and I feel this would have added an extra depth to this book. This book really highlights the reality for many disabled people and shows how society has so much to learn still when it comes to accessibility and disability.

This is one book that is sure to set itself apart from the others gthat try to tell you how to go about finding yourself.

Very informative and not too heavy of a read for being a memoir.
I liked the heavy focus towards some of the later chapters in the book about being unemployed and disabled. As an unemployed disabled person I really appreciated that.

Don't have the energy right now to write a longer review, so yeah I recommend it as a short memoir by a blind person!

As someone who is coming to terms with decreasing vision myself, the title of this book caught my attention. I decided to read it hoping for a positive experience and insight into what it's like to lose one's sight.

John Samuel did a good job of sharing the struggles he had, both internally and externally, as he lost his eyesight, and how he's used those experiences to grow and try to help others. But so much of it seemed to focus on his career aspirations and the impressive feat of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but even that was sandwiched in between finishing one job and returning to school.

Very little was touched upon in terms of how he navigated being blind while raising two children. In fact, there's only one limited reference to sitting with his firstborn son and trying to memorize his face as best he could. We learn of his second son as an aside later on.

While the story was inspiring, it left me wanting more from it.

Thank you to John Samuel, Baron Publishing and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. At first, the author kept wanting to do things his own way, even though he was loosing his sight. He eventually comes around and realizes that the cane helps him navigate the world. I think we’re all like that at some point in our lives;we don’t want things to change yet they always do.

This is the story of the author's personal struggle with vision loss due to Retinitis Pigmentosa which began in his teens. For years he denied the problem and shied away from asking for assistance. More than half the book is his struggle to find work, navigate the world designed for sighted people, and trying to hide his disability. He starts a business in Africa, climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro, and still struggled with being seen as a blind person. The reader learns the difficulties of his path and the joys of his embracing his disabilities. As he finds accommodations and acceptance, he is able to make his mark on the world. Read this book if you want to learn more about how those with visual disabilities navigate the world. Read it if you want to learn about the struggle disabled people have in accepting and disclosing their disability. Read it if you want an uplifting story of self-acceptance.

Don't Ask The Blind Guy For Directions is about a man dealing with sight loss. He's initially reluctant to accept it but eventually comes around to his access needs. It's a reasonably interesting story but the writing doesn't hook you in and it lost me along the way.

"Don't Ask the Blind Guy for Directions" written by John Samuel 📚 5 ⭐️

Imagine this - It is getting late and it's dark outside... thump... you just walked into the dust bin... thump.. another dust bin! The truth is that it is not even that dark outside, the truth is that you are losing your eyesight and within one year you are going to be completely blind!
A challenging life twist what one might give in but not John, giving up was not an option. Embracing his disability brought strength, new ideas that help others and strong sincere friendships.
I enjoyed reading John Samuel's life story and found it very encouraging and who knows, I might climb Kilimanjaro mountain too someday - yes, he did that too! A real inspiration!

Big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC opportunity!

Rating: 4/5

An encouraging account of losing vision and gaining wisdom, undeterred by the constraints of an incurable degenerative eye disease.

Knowing that your eyesight will one day disappear, slowly but surely, must be hell. After struggling to comprehend what was wrong and inevitably deal with an irreversible genetic condition (Retinitis Pigmentosa), John Samuel forges ahead, achieving notable career and personal success. As the subtitle suggests, this memoir takes place across the globe while reflecting on John’s inner struggle to accept and share the truth of his diagnosis. He maintains a remarkable ambitiousness considering the low points.

Although the principal theme of Don’t Ask the Blind Guy for Directions is the advocation for better accessibility/accommodation for an often overlooked disabled population, the challenges are relatable and positivity inspiring to anyone dealing with an unfortunate medical diagnosis. I’d recommend reading this book; it is available November 1 2022. Thanks NetGalley and the author for an early review copy!