General Information
===================
 Title:                  
 ----
Crashing Through : The True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who 
Dared to See
 Author:                 Robert Kurson
 Read By:                Doug Ordunio
 Copyright:              2007
 Audiobook Copyright:    2007
 Genre:                  Biography
 Publisher:              Books on Tape
 Abridged:               No

Original Media Information
==========================
 Source:                 Digital Download (9/2009)
 Condition:              Good

File Information
================
 Number of MP3s:         8
 Total Duration:         10:12:54
 Total MP3 Size:         280.67
 Parity Archive:         YES
 Ripped By:              Indy
 Encoded At:             CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
 ID3 Tags:               Set, v1.1, v2.3

Book Description
================
Blinded in a childhood accident, Mike May never hesitated to try anything—drivi-
ng a motorcycle, hiking alone in the woods, downhill skiing—until the 
day, when May was 46, an ophthalmologist told him a new stem-cell and 
cornea transplant could restore his vision. As Esquire contributing 
editor Kurson (Shadow Divers) relates, the decision to have the surgery 
wasn't easy. May, always a "pioneer in his heart," had never really 
felt he was missing anything in life. The surgery also had a few risks: 
the restoration of sight might only be temporary; the immunosuppressive 
drug was highly toxic; May might never adjust to the changes having 
sight would cause. Previously, patients had become depressed, their 
lives ruined because, while it might seem strange to sighted people, 
these patients found that the idea of vision was better than the reality. 
May went forward, only to find that, even though his eye was now perfect, 
his brain had forgotten how to process visual input. Fascinated by colors 
and patterns, he had difficulty discerning facial features, letters, 
even men from women. How May adjusts to his medical miracle, living 
with the disappointments as well as the joys, makes for a remarkable 
story of courage and endurance.
Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied 
expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining 
the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family 
man. He had never yearned for vision.

Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary 
stem cell transplant surgery could restore May’s vision. It would allow 
him to drive, to read, to see his children’s faces. He began to contemplate 
an astonishing new world: Would music still sound the same? Would sex 
be different? Would he recognize himself in the mirror? Would his marriage 
survive? Would he still be Mike May?

The procedure was filled with risks, some of them deadly, others beyond 
May’s wildest dreams. Even if the surgery worked, history was against 
him. Fewer than twenty cases were known worldwide in which a person 
gained vision after a lifetime of blindness. Each of those people suffered 
desperate consequences we can scarcely imagine.

There were countless reasons for May to pass on vision. He could think 
of only a single reason to go forward. Whatever his decision, he knew 
it would change his life.

Beautifully written and thrillingly told, CRASHING THROUGH is a journey 
of suspense, daring, romance, and insight into the mysteries of vision 
and the brain. Robert Kurson gives us a fascinating account of one man’s 
choice to explore what it means to see–and to truly live.

