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116th out of 535 books
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363 voters
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The Island of the Colorblind
by
Oliver Sacks
From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars comes "a delightful inner and outer journey, destined to surprise and please the devoted Sacks reader" (Washington Post) - a work rich in curiosity and compassion and intellectual adventure.
Paperback, 311 pages
Published
January 12th 1998
by Vintage
(first published 1997)
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I've loved Oliver Sacks for a long time, but up until now I'd only read and re-read The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. The Island of the Colorblind seemed like a natural next choice for me, because it combines my interest in neuropsychology with my interest in island biogeography (the study of the way species on islands evolve to become very specialized, to the point where an extremely high percentage of the species on any given island may be endemic to that pa...more
Drawn by an interest in studying the lives of people with complete color blindness and a love for cycads (flora dating back to "prehistoric times), Oliver Sacks recounts his visit to the islands of Micronesia.
Sacks delvers into how people with color (or for him being british, colour) blindness live. Full cases of color blindness (achromatopsia) are hard to come by, yet in some micronesian islands there are large percentages of full cases. He also recounts a mysterious illness on...more
Sacks delvers into how people with color (or for him being british, colour) blindness live. Full cases of color blindness (achromatopsia) are hard to come by, yet in some micronesian islands there are large percentages of full cases. He also recounts a mysterious illness on...more
This is the first time since using Goodreads that I've stepped beyond my stated purpose and logged a book I read before starting my Goodreads list but haven't re-read afresh prior to posting a review. Given the fascinating books I've been reading lately, I'm moved to share with fellow readers how glad I am of the serendipitous occasion back in the mid 1990s when I discovered this gem while clerking for the public library. Idle curiosity led me to check it out; little did I know at the time that...more
2009 #42: This book is by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who also wrote the non-fiction book Awakenings that the Robert DeNiro & Robbin Williams book is based on. The first half of the book is a study of a group of natives to islands in the Pacific where around 10% of the population is colorblind. It is more than just a neurological picture of them, it is also a cultural picture of how these people cope with their sight issues. Sacks does a great job of drawing you into the story of this group o...more
I love Oliver Sacks. He picks interesting things to write about. I first read The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat a few years ago (now who could resist such a catchy title) and I loved it.
This book addresses a disease I didn't think was so prevalent, colorblindness. I just thought that was a good excuse for men who couldn't put their ties and shirts together properly but now I consider myself more informed on the disease,achromatopsia.
This book addresses a disease I didn't think was so prevalent, colorblindness. I just thought that was a good excuse for men who couldn't put their ties and shirts together properly but now I consider myself more informed on the disease,achromatopsia.
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I knew I would enjoy this book, having thoroughly liked previous books by this author, but I did not expect to be enchanted. Perhaps because it narrates a journey through the Islands of the Pacific where I have never been though I am of the blood true. Perhaps because it is surprising, in the modern world of specialization, to come across a renaissance man of the same breed as Charles Darwin, people who don't distinguish between modes of science any more than they distinguish between science a...more
Sacks writes a pretty scientific account of his Micronesian tour, which I guess I can't criticize. The guy's a neurologist. However, that being said, he does a phenomenal job describing the interactions he has with Pacific Islanders and how mystified he is by nature.
***
And in that first long moment, with the children coming out of the forest, some with their arms around each other, and the tropical luxuriance of vegetation in all directions - the beauty of the primitive...more
***
And in that first long moment, with the children coming out of the forest, some with their arms around each other, and the tropical luxuriance of vegetation in all directions - the beauty of the primitive...more
A very good and unusual combination of travelogue and medical mystery-- this book would be an excellent choice for a vacation anywhere in the Pacific. As in his other books, Sacks has a talent for painting very vivid pictures of people and places-- and moreover, he brings a similar clarity to his descriptions of complex scientific and medical phenomena. One thing I love about him is that he never dumbs it down-- he speaks in the language of science and expects you to have the right vocabulary....more
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Sacks is a wonderful writer, who has managed to install more of a sense of wonder at the possibilities (and limitations) of science in me than my teachers have. This book reminds me of Bill Brysons A Short History Of Nearly Everything, because of the wrong tracks, solutions that aren't quite right, etc. This is how real science marches forward: not a few individuals making grand discoveries, but scores of people who try and try and try to find an answer, until somebody stands on the shoulders of...more
I was expecting this book to be boring and Sacks to be going on and on about plants. I was pleasantly surprised! Only the last chapter "Rota" is entirely devoted to cycads and other ancient plants; otherwise, the rest of the book is mostly about island diseases, island history, island culture, and island "case studies" and research. I especially enjoyed the chapter "Guam" and found the stories of the families afflicted with lytico-bodig disease to be heartbreaking y...more
Another winner from Sacks. First, an account of an achromatopic community on the pacific island of Pohnpei (which may also interesting to those who liked Jjasper Ffordes fictionalized account in "Shades of Grey.") He then goes on to Guam and Rok, in search of cycads, palmlike plants that have survived since the Carboniferous era, which may or may not be responsible for a rare neuroligical disorder among the native Chamorros, that resembles both ALS and parkinsonism, conditions he des...more
What's not to love: traveling around tropical islands with Oliver Sacks, bringing needed supplies to poor citizens, some of whom have a rare disorder that they see in black and white and are extremely sensitive to light. Again, Oliver Sacks' wit and compassion come through (and he gets a bit geeky over the botanical specimens he finds, which is slightly less compelling) as you follow him around, meeting all sorts of people. I cried when a kid who'd never been able to play outside, got a pair ...more
Warm description of a Sacks journey to Pingelap & Guam, two islands with an exceptional high occurrence of a particular disease. Typically Sacks, his descriptions come always with regard for the person behind the patient.
Quite a part of the book goes on his travel experience itself, which is in general a nice read, but often links back to Sacks interest in botany and especially cycads, a hobby I have little or no affiliation with...
BTW - enjoyed to complement the book with a ...more
Quite a part of the book goes on his travel experience itself, which is in general a nice read, but often links back to Sacks interest in botany and especially cycads, a hobby I have little or no affiliation with...
BTW - enjoyed to complement the book with a ...more
Normally I don't read more than one book by an author (that is, until I've finished reading all of the major authors in the world!), but with Oliver Sacks, the subjects are just too fascinating to pass up. The first section of this book, "The Island of the Colorblind," is very engrossing, but the second section, "Cycads," is almost completely about trees. Though Sacks is interested in both neurological anomalies and ancient plants, most people are not fascinated by both. The ...more
There is a type of complete colorblindness, achromatopsia, where people do not have functional cones in their eyes and are almost blind in sunlight because of the sensitivity of the rods. Achromatopsia, unlike red-green colorblindness, is very rare. The island of Fuur and the island of Pingelap both had large numbers of people suffering from this congenital achromatopsia. Only Pingelap, in the south Pacific, still has large numbers of achromatopes. The author visited Pingelap with a physiologist...more
As an admirer of Oliver Sacks’s clear, inquisitive articles on neurobiology, I was saddened to discover that his travelogue of Micronesia is both patronizing and exoticizing.
Throughout this book, Sacks employs the same tone he uses when discussing patients with debilitating medical ailments, a kind of sympathetic wonderment at the bizarre feats performed damaged brains. Here, this tone is applied to entire populations and cultures, as when he describes the ponderously fat islanders ...more
Throughout this book, Sacks employs the same tone he uses when discussing patients with debilitating medical ailments, a kind of sympathetic wonderment at the bizarre feats performed damaged brains. Here, this tone is applied to entire populations and cultures, as when he describes the ponderously fat islanders ...more
I picked this up again because I was blogging about cycads. In this book Sacks visits a couple of Pacific islands where many of the locals have unusual neurological conditions; total colour-blindness on Pingelap and a degenerative disorder called lytico-bodig on Guam.
The neurology is interesting—the colour blindness isn’t typical red/green colour-blindness but a complete absence of colour perception, and lytico-bodig is a disease of unknown cause, with such varied presentation that i...more
The neurology is interesting—the colour blindness isn’t typical red/green colour-blindness but a complete absence of colour perception, and lytico-bodig is a disease of unknown cause, with such varied presentation that i...more
The title is a little misleading, because it doesn't only discuss colorblind-ness, but the book is really a collection of three adventures that Oliver Sacks has had. It is pretty cool, to me at least, because he discusses different islands that have not yet been modernized, and have been allowed to keep evolving at their own pace. Oliver Sacks just throws in a lot of sciency words, and I think I would have been a little bit overwhelmed by them all if I hadn't been listening to it as an audiobook...more
You gotta love Oliver Sacks. He's just so knowledgeable and nerdy and energetic. There are so many things in the world he knows about that I never imagined! This is another unusual population--a heavy concentration of colorblind people are found on a few islands in the North Pacific. He puzzles about this, wondering what are the factors that make it so concentrated in this area. He brings much scientific expertise to the table and looks at many angles. His sweet concern with the people keep it f...more
In the first half of the book, Oliver Sacks goes to Micronesia to explore the high rate of colorblindness amongst the population of Pohnpei. One theory cites a terrible hurricane over two hundred years ago decimated over ninty percent of the island. In order to restock the island, inbreeding had to take place over numerous generations which would lead to genetic defects.
The second half of the book has Sacks going to Guam to look at a mysterous neurodegenerative paralysis similar to Parkins...more
The second half of the book has Sacks going to Guam to look at a mysterous neurodegenerative paralysis similar to Parkins...more
Valerie
added it
Many of Sacks' books have opened up new ideas and understandings of mind--this one added a new element for me--familiarity. I don't suffer from achromatopsia--my color vision is a bit odd, but not so's I can't read the little numbers in the
color-vision test. But there're secondary aspects, such as the sensitivity to light, that do pertain to me.
I'm rereading it now more or less as a review--but I may go back and reread other of Sacks' works, afterward.
I'm re-reading i...more
color-vision test. But there're secondary aspects, such as the sensitivity to light, that do pertain to me.
I'm rereading it now more or less as a review--but I may go back and reread other of Sacks' works, afterward.
I'm re-reading i...more
I have yet to read a book by Oliver Sacks that I didn't like. This guy is the sort of Scientist that I love. He is interested in all fields, and how they interact; looking at both the details and the big picture. He is also a great travel writer to boot, truly capturing a sense of the places he visits.
I have yet to read a book by Oliver Sacks that I didn't like. This guy is the sort of Scientist that I love. He is interested in all fields, and how they interact; looking at both the details and the big picture. He is also a great travel writer to boot, truly capturing a sense of the places he visits.
I found this book to be really interesting. I am someone who is interested in medical mysteries, and those are the types of books sacks writes. He is a very engaging writer, and he includes lots of personal anecdotes in his writing. I have read several of his books, and I plan on reading more of them.
I really liked this one and learning about this island of people who, through genetics, became a whole different society and culture than you would expect. The last half of the book wasn't quite as interesting as it moved from less 'story-telling' to more 'facts'. Still, a great read.
Like all of his books, this made me think that Oliver Sacks would be a good dinner companion. He describes his travels to several small, isolated islands in the Pacific, all of which have interesting clusters of diseases and unique plants due to their geographical isolation.
I read this a few years after returning from Micronesia and the descriptions absolutley transported me back. I knew the exact spots he described them so well. Even if you haven't been to micronesia, Sacks is great at making science mysterious and intriuging.
This is my favourite book of all Sacks' material. There was something about the juxtaposition of botany and biology that fit together just right. He makes it all look easy, and teaches the reader without lecturing or being the least bit dull.
To my mind, this book didn't delve into the philosophical questions about colorblindness it promised to, which was a disappointment. Read more like a Paul Theroux travelogue than a real neurological/psychological/anthropological inquiry - which is fine, if that's what one goes into it expecting.
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Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born July 9, 1933, London), is a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a phys...more
More about Oliver Sacks...
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a phys...more
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