Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
by Oliver W. Sacks
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Read in January, 2008
Sacks is, for me, a perfect meeting of a science writer and a writer of creative non-fiction. He has an equal interest in telling an affecting, human story and with exploring how (and why) the brain works. While lots of science writing is dry and objective (as it should be) and while mainstream feature writing often ignores the more complicated science stuff, Sacks is a rare talent who has a penchant for story telling and for explaining the newest research on the brain. He doesn’t condescend, ...more
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Read in January, 2008
“Musicophlia: Tales of Music of the Brain” has got to be one of the most confusing yet interesting books I’ve ever read.
The main strength of the book is the stories the author, Oliver Sacks, tells us in the book. Tony Cicoria, a man that had no previous experience with music, got struck by lightning one day, was dead briefly, but brought back to life, and two or three days later, he has a sudden desire to listen to piano music, eventually getting piano lessons and starts composing. Sal...more
The main strength of the book is the stories the author, Oliver Sacks, tells us in the book. Tony Cicoria, a man that had no previous experience with music, got struck by lightning one day, was dead briefly, but brought back to life, and two or three days later, he has a sudden desire to listen to piano music, eventually getting piano lessons and starts composing. Sal...more
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This is my first oliver sacks -- I always meant to read the Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat but alas never got around to it.
I love mr. sacks' delightful anecdotal storytelling and his intellect that makes fresh and accessible the study of the brain. It *almost* makes the issues dealt with in the book pleasant.
In a nutshell, this book is about the power of music, backed by many accounts from the medical perspective of the interaction between music and the brain. It's hard to tell witho...more
I love mr. sacks' delightful anecdotal storytelling and his intellect that makes fresh and accessible the study of the brain. It *almost* makes the issues dealt with in the book pleasant.
In a nutshell, this book is about the power of music, backed by many accounts from the medical perspective of the interaction between music and the brain. It's hard to tell witho...more
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6 comments
Read in May, 2008
after months of anticipation, i finally read this book over the course of 4 days. overall, i'm a bit disappointed; however, i couldn't describe my expectations with much specificity.
this book made me think, as i am quite drawn to books that make me think about my placement and purpose in this world. oliver sacks created a landscape, a visual, of a world i am completely blind to (less so now). losing one's mental facilities is a strange process - but the descriptions sacks provides of musi...more
this book made me think, as i am quite drawn to books that make me think about my placement and purpose in this world. oliver sacks created a landscape, a visual, of a world i am completely blind to (less so now). losing one's mental facilities is a strange process - but the descriptions sacks provides of musi...more
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To be brutally honest, I’m not really impressed or finding this enjoyable to read. What a disappointment! I had this book on my to read list for many months. What I was looking for was a scientific interpretation of how music/and not just classical music either— affects our emotions, actions, reactions and how the process of listening or remembering a tune is an ubiquitous power that is beyond any other creative pursuit from writing, painting, sculpting, dancing or art of the day.
This...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
diehard fans of Oliver Sacks' writings only
I have to agree wholeheartedly with the reviews of Mike (3/18/08) and Ginnie (12/2007). Sacks presents here a somewhat rambling zoology of neurological observations relating to music, heavy on anecdote, light on peer-reviewed study, analysis, or interesting speculation. A typical example of this is Sacks' chapter on Williams Syndrome patients, in which Sacks reiterates the near-identical symptoms/traits of Steven, Meghan, Christian, Anne ("the eldest at forty-six"), Majestic, Debbie, T...more
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Read in February, 2008
Oliver Sacks has been one of my favorite authors ever since I first read The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. I still completely amazed, and a little bit disturbed, when I think back to his account of the woman who lost her sense of proprioception - the internal body sense that lets you know your body is there, even when you have your eyes closed. No other author (since Proust) has explored the nuances of consciousness so carefully, nor pointed out how tenuous the our grip on reali...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Erin by:
A geneticist with whom I workrecommends it for: anyone
This book was fantastic. To think about the brain and music's power over us is incredible. Music plays a focal role in my life, and always has--I have played piano from the age of 5 years and also studied flute, performing in college. I would not have met the love of my life were it not for my connection to music and musicians who are friends.
My personal brain "jukebox" enhanced my interest in the patient stories shared by Dr. Sacks. I have songs in my head at all times, sometimes ...more
My personal brain "jukebox" enhanced my interest in the patient stories shared by Dr. Sacks. I have songs in my head at all times, sometimes ...more
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Read in May, 2008
Oliver Sacks tells fascinating stories about fascinating people. This is, I assume, his appeal to most readers: human interest. These human interest stories are made fascinating, of course, by the neurological problems faced by their subjects. Thus, Sacks' readers can learn a lot about the human brain along the way--but these biology lessons are secondary to the stories that he tells. Or at least this is the case in Sacks' collections of essays about case studies: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,...more
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Read in December, 2007
Dr. Sacks has written about brains for decades now. He's also a decent, enthusiastic amateur musician. In Musicophilia, the good Dr. brings the brain and music together to cover what can go wrong and also oh so right when music and the brain get together.
Dr. Sacks first covers the various problems when the mind either fails to process music "normally" or attaches a variety of extra sensory reactions to music. His experience is both anecdotal and academic as he relies both on his...more
Dr. Sacks first covers the various problems when the mind either fails to process music "normally" or attaches a variety of extra sensory reactions to music. His experience is both anecdotal and academic as he relies both on his...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
adults
This book was amazing. After reading it, I really want to track down some of Sacks' other works, such as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. He gives interesting commentary -- both from his own perspective and from what he has observed in his patients -- on music. I'm just floored at the number of things that can enhance or interfere with someone's enjoyment of even a simple tune, and it's nothing short of astonishing that things seem to go right as often as they do, with ever...more
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Read in March, 2008
Dr. Sacks' Musicophilia covers a wide range of tremendously interesting instances of musics odd effects on the mind, however it's anecdotal nature is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. Because the stories fly by quickly it is easy to tear through a number of them and find your self saying, "Huh. Weird." But because it lacks a thorough exploration of many of the stories, the anecdotes often remain nothing greater than anecdotes. Most tend to involve Dr. Sacks stati...more
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recommended to Sami by:
My Mum
recommends it for: Any one whos interested in music, or even neurology
recommends it for: Any one whos interested in music, or even neurology
I got this book for christmas from my mum who made all of my christmas presents music related. At first glance the book was pretty daunting due to its massive size, i know i wouldn't have even started it if i didn't have such a passion for music. Now that i have finished reading it though, it is one of the best books i have ever read. Its not really one definite story, instead its a collection of stories all focused around one topic, music and the brain. The great thing about this book is that w...more
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Read in November, 2007
Musicophelia is an enchanting read, though one is struck more by the phenomena depicted—amusias, musical hallucinations, comatose patients suddenly "awakened" by nothing more than a familiar melody—than the manner of their depiction. Sacks has always been lauded for his fluid, personable style, and for good reason, but in the wake of classics such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Uncle Tungsten, his writing seems excessively florid and repetitive—neither tight enoug...more
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Read in November, 2007
I enjoyed "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat," and so was very excited to read this book after hearing Dr. Sacks do several NPR interviews. He has a way of taking dry, clinical cases and terminology and making them very human stories. What is “normal” is so physiologically based, and therefore very fluid to him as a neurologist, that in reading this book, one really does start to realise that "normalcy" is easily taken for granted.
This subject is of course more...more
This subject is of course more...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is the first Sacks book I've read. First thing first, I do know a little about the brain thanks to a science major, but without prior knowledge, I would have gotten lost in Sack's brain jargon. Though it is not crucial to the case studies to understand the different brain lobes and anatomical parts, it adds another layer to each story which not all audiences can appreciate. The same holds for a basic understand of music. I've done quite a bit of music in my time which helped propel the stor...more
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Read in January, 2008
I wasn't hugely impressed with this. Sacks's writing sometimes gets extremely dry as he goes into the technicalities of how the brain functions. I found his other books, with chapters each covering a variety of conditions ("Anthropologist on Mars," "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat"), to be much stronger, even though they were less consistent thematically. It seemed that at times Sacks had to stretch to find patients with some of the musical conditions he described -...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
adults
"Musicophilia Tales of Music and the Brain" uses case studies and personal observation/research to examine the relationship between music and the brain. Sachs describes the power music has to enrich the lives of people suffering from debilitating illnesses such as Autism or Alzheimers. He also looks at what happens when music "goes wrong" in the brain and explains things such as ear worms/brain worms where you just can't lose that tune that loops in your head. Sachs does n...more
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I was excited enough about this book to buy the hardcover, and was unfortunately pretty disappointed. I'm a big Sacks fan - he seldom condescends to the reader and though he gets a little dry and science-heavy at times, I have a biology degree to help me out. But in this book, not only did he refuse to condescend he refused to explain at all. I found myself getting angrier and angrier every time I had to close my book and run over to my computer to google something in a passage to fully understa...more
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Read in November, 2008
I don't think Sacks is a very good writer, but he does offer about 50 strange/bizarre cases of people who were born with some unusual ability, or gained it after an accident or illness.
A man struck by lightning at age 42, with little musical background, becomes a talented musician.
Some people can "see" music.
That is each note on the scale has a different color.
The note of A might be blue, B green, and so on.
And this color doesn't disrupt their normal vision,
that is ...more
A man struck by lightning at age 42, with little musical background, becomes a talented musician.
Some people can "see" music.
That is each note on the scale has a different color.
The note of A might be blue, B green, and so on.
And this color doesn't disrupt their normal vision,
that is ...more
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