I received the book I ordered very promptly. It was in excellent condition just as stated by the seller. Thank you for such good service.

I was intrigued by the topic, but the book itself was a disappointment. Lots of repetitive annecdotes that didn't provide much real insight. How do books like this get published?

This book is very readable even for those outside the scientific and medical communities. Sacks lends insights into the human mind and its physiological underpinnings by walking the reader through a series of cases studies, showcasing both the weird and wild things music does to our brains, as well as the weird and wild music that can be created by some very special brains. Perhaps most importantly, his case studies are not written in clinical, sterile prose, but in the language of a man genuinely infatuated with music and the human mind. His excitement is often contagious.

I liked the book but i was expecting it to be more scientific and less theoretical. its got lots of words so as a techy, i skipped around a lot and used it more as a reference, thus... I recommend it as a reference book for anyone doing research in the music therapy realm.

This is exactly what a book written in the early part of the twenty-first century about the brain should be: a hodgepodge of anecdotal musings couched in good science without being subjugated by that science. There's much work to be done before anybody even reasonably approximates a complete theory of mind, and this is the premise of Sacks's casual, even poetic storytelling that matches his decades of neurological acumen with a refreshing capacity to deconstruct case studies with the simple elegance of, fittingly, music. A man struck by lightning becomes voraciously musically inclined, another man completely enclosed in his dementia can still conduct a full symphony through a mysterious mechanism of motor recall, and yet another struck in the head by a baseball develops the cognitively asymmetric ability to perfectly imprint auditory input. We are left, with Sacks's guidance, to do nothing but conjure flimsy hypotheses while marveling at the stealth relationship between mind, music, and perhaps something deeper.

By now, it's a given that an Oliver Sacks' book is worth your time and close attention. His particular talent lies in making the science interesting without becoming a "pop-science" writer. This is not an easy achievement, but Sacks manages it with facility. He can explain the science in terms of case studies - many of which have claimed his medical attention. He does this while mixing in experiences of his own and some personal reflections which are anything but intrusions. While some of his books are essays on selected individuals ["An Anthropologist on Mars" is an example], this one has a very special focus: the minds that make music unbidden.

Music arising in the mind without prompting may seem a common enough occurence. The advertising industry has demonstated fully music as an uncontrollable meme. The cases Sacks portrays here are of another sort. In some cases the music has taken over - sometimes supplanting other thinking processes and reducing the victim to near helplessness. The chief problem is often a lack of variety. More than the adverts' jingles, particular tunes may emerge from the distant past to occupy the sufferer's waking hours. A well-disciplined mind, such as Doctor P's, may be able to use the uncalled for music in ways that get them through daily tasks. Others don't have that ability and the music proves a terrible distraction. The music renders them "incapable of hearing themselves think".

Therapy for such conditions is in its infancy and may actually be subverted by the deluge of music impinging our ears daily. Sacks notes the proliferation of the iPod devices bringing music to listeners who seem to pass the day in another realm. This, however, is not relieving a condition, but may be generating a new one. Some music therapy has been in use to overcome coordination disorders, but this is limited and selective in effectiveness. Even "classical" music, which is known to "draw the mind" into it is not innocent in causing disorders. One of the more captivating classical pieces, Ravel's "Bolero" may be both the product of "musicophilia" in an aging composer and the source of endless reptition in the mind of the listener. The tendency of the mind to retain music is demonstrated in those with advanced Alzheimer's, who lose other facilities but retain a sense for music. Is music thus something the brain holds on to as something reliable in an otherwise confusing world? Brain scans have demonstrated that professional musicians have certain areas of the brain larger than the rest of us, but as a path to therapy, this situation has offered little up to now.

The author's avoidance of simply presenting a string of clinical studies is a testament to his humanitarian approach to the various conditions he lists here. In a sense, this book is a catalog of distortions the mind may be subject to relating to music. In one case, a lightning strike turns an orthopaedic surgeon into a classical pianist. Another suffers massive brain damage, yet continues a relatively normal life so long as he can arrange things in musical forms. Others may respond positively to prompts of classical themes, while becoming emotionally distraught at modern forms. Listing the cases in such a way leaves the impression that one might as well be perusing a medical journal. In Sacks' hands, nothing could be further from the truth. He is passionate in his relating these conditions, his feelings permeating every page. A book well worth your time, whether you are intersted in music, the mind or how they combine in the minds of people you may know. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book opens up your mind to new ideas on the value and processing of music. An amazing, insightful creation!

I loved Oliver Sacks's other books -- "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" and Anthropologist on Mars." Long after reading them, I quote stories from them, even after forgetting their origin. But "Musicophila" is a drag

Though Sacks seems to follow his trademark formula -- using extraordinary tales of people with mental disabilities and injuries to shed light on normality -- it falls flat here. We learn of people with irksome musical hallucinations, folks whose musicality becomes all-encompassing after getting hit by lightning, and all sorts of epilepsy-like symptoms that involve music. There are even folks who develop selected tone-blindness -- hearing some tones flatter or sharper than then really are. But it doesn't seem to add up to anything. Certainly not to a book that makes me want to keep reading.

Musicality seem so wired into our brains. Everyone from the stoniest stoner to airiest aesthete has his or her own personal soundtrack and musical preferences. A movie without a soundtrack has no soul. A religious ceremony without it seems an exercise in atheism. A ballgame or sports roundup on the news needs its own music. Even soldiers battling in the streets of Baghdad patrol to heavy metal accompaniment. It's sad that Sacks can't give us any memorable insights into this most pervasive and seemingly vital of human experiences.

Musicophilia is another book that, in spite of the worthiness of its subject and the erudition of its author, is impossible to get through. What does it need -- more lurid examples? weirder symptoms? less cribbing from Sacks' other books?

Sounds about right.

The great Oliver Sachs turns his attention to neurological disturbances related to the hearing of Music. In the course of it he shows that what I suspect most of us take for granted, that we all share a basic single way of 'hearing music' to be wrong. He shows that the listening to Music is an enormously complex neurological process involving different areas of the brain. And in chronicling a wide variety of disorders he shows not only how different areas of the Brain are involved but also how social elements may play their part in these disorders. For instance in discussing musical therapy for stroke victims, Parkinson sufferers, Alzheimer patients he shows just how important with the stroke victims a therapist can be . Sachs chronicles a long list of unusual cases and disorders. He provides a great deal of personal anecdote also related to his own 'listening history'. He shows us that our being able to listen properly to music is a great and complex gift.
The reader of this book will learn not only a tremendous amount about what is involved in 'listening to music', but of the richness and variety of humanity.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading and studying this book. Oliver Sacks a professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry, has a very engaging writing style. Sacks writes in an understandble way for most, but still uses medical terminology to be more precise.

I know from reading another book ("The Feeling of What Happens) by a neurologist (Antonio Damaisio) that neurology is filled with strange syndromes and defects/conditions. I find this book even more fascinating because Sacks emphasizes case histories. These individuals are not really "sick" but are "gifted" with special talents related to music. There are many who have various syndromes/ailments and are able to moderate their problems via music (either playing or listening to it).

My favorite parts of the book are the discussions on things such as synesthesia (unusual perception of sound/music), musicogenenic epilepsy (seizures initiated by sound/music), musicophilia and brain worms. There were however no parts of this book where I was not totally engaged and interested in the information. This may not be an easy read for everyone, but it's impossible to read it without being in awe of the power of music and the people who play it.

To be honest, I'm not yet finished reading the book. But as far as I've read, I wish Dr. Sacks hsd more "music" and less "brain" in the book. I'd be very interested in how composers' and musicians' brains work differently than from everyone else's and how music evolves differently in different people. Maybe this will be covered in later chapters.

Through the retold stories of individuals who experienced musical healing on neurological function, the author explores miraculous effects. He offers examples over a wide variety of injuries and disease induced neurological malfunction. The accounts, although more clinically told than sincerely, have believeability and provide credibility to the book's premise: there are often profound benefits of music therapy.
The author helps a reader understand that music is a quantifiable method to create a meditative effect and meditative processes can facilitate healing. One more score for the inexplicable values of art and science.

My sister recommended this book to me. She and I are both musicians, she as a baritone horn and piano player and I as a dance and jazz band sax/clarinet/vibes player. Dr. Sacks is a very informative and amusing writer with a wealth of exprience.

I have always liked Oliver Sacks' writing. His mix of clinical
observation, erudite philosphical musings, combined with the
deep empathy for the patients he describes is unique. However,
this book is quite different from his previous offerings since he
chooses a single underlying theme. It would appear that the
cases discussed and conclusions drawn would be more limited
than the far ranging examples in his previous books.

Yet, if anything, the opposite is true. He delves deeply into
this, some would say, inessential human endeavor, and shows
how intricately it is interwoven with everything else that makes
us human. In doing so he illustrates, perhaps better than in
any of his previous works, how complex our minds truly are.

The first story in the book, which appeared in the New Yorker
several months before publication, really sold me on the book.
I was somewhat disappointed with the next few pieces, which
were a bit of a letdown. However, the book soon picks up, and
the second half is as good as anything he has written before.
He does revisit several of his earlier case studies, however he
casts them in a new light.

Read the first story on the New Yorker website. If you like it,
you will enjoy the book

This book is written from the perspective of Oliver Sacks, a psychologist for many decades. He writes of the the multitudinous experiences of people with musical aspects that he has come across, both in his practise, and in people who have made contact with him. It is riveting reading for me as a musician with some minor neurological dysfunction at times as well as perfect pitch, to hear of many stories of people who have similar status, and what Sacks has been able to discover.

I just received today. This is the kind of book you can start to read anywhere and be engrossed. I completely admit that some of is too clinical and somewhat difficult to understand, however, most of it is absolutely fasinating. I highly recommend this if you have any interest at all in music and the brain. I always appreciate the ancedotes and Sack's does not scrimp. Highly recommended.

At first this was a bit more clinical than I expected, then I warmed up to it. I was interested as a musician and someone interested also in cognitive processes. I had hoped to gain insight into some of the functioning of my husband's musical mind post-coma, but I also gained insight into my own musical mind post-concussion.... as in, maybe it had something to do with my taking up music again after 20 years of silence. So for the first time I had a bit of gratitude for the experience.
Lee & I both did a significant amount of self-rehabilitation; it would be nice if more professionals took heed of music's role in healing the brain.

I write as an admirer of Sacks's earlier books: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Uncle Tungsten, An Anthropologist on Mars, and Awakenings. This book, I'm sorry to say, wasted my time. We get the "case study" approach, familiar from the earlier books. What I missed is either any overarching theme or resolution. Chapter after chapter seemed little more than "this abnormality or statistical oddity has a correspondence somewhere in the brain." Well, duh-uh. Perhaps we so little about the mind that no such theme or resolution or even narrative arc was possible. Yet I never got that feeling from Sacks before. I did like the chapter on Clive Wearing, because for once I saw a living portrait. On the other hand, I believe I had read that chapter, or an earlier version of it, in the New Yorker. As far as I'm concerned, this is Sacks on automatic.

Somewhat engaging, but not nearly as good as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings, or An Anthropologist on Mars.

It's very well written. Have interesting cases and lot's of serious cientifical discussion. I't will certainly become a "must have" for Music educators and other kinds of musicians.

The book was fascinating. In addition to offering a comprehensive set of narratives about extraordinary mental conditions involving the perception of music, it provided an entry into awareness of the activities of the brain, as they are now known. It also suggested some provocative philosophical and theological questions. ``

I was expecting some information on how the music affects the mind, learning, etc. However, this was just a bunch of unrelated stories about the strange effect of brain injuries on people. Maybe I would have read more if the stories were developed enough to care about the people in the stories, but I stopped reading the book 1/2 way through. Sacks seems to have "phoned it in" on this one.

I was looking for an interesting book about how music interacts with the human mind. What I got was a list of case studies of patients with varying degrees of amusia. Some of the stories are interesting and present exciting insight into the human mind the the effects music has upon it, but most stories are repetitive, long, and uninteresting.

This was the first book I've read by Sacks after hearing much high praise for him, but I do not plan to purchase any of his other works after this mostly uninspired read.

If you are interested in case studies of people losing and/or regaining their ability to hear music then perhaps this book is for you. If you are looking for a look inside the human brain and its interactions with music as I was, you will likely find this book lacking.

Oliver Sacks has a way of letting the reader walk through the brain. I first read him in his book about Sign Language (and made it a textbook for my class), then Awakening. The use of footnotes almost gives you two separate books but if you want to LEARN, it's worth it. As a musician, I can attest that music is a second (third, fourth) langauge and grabs the brain by the throat. I think Sacks enjoys the research more than the topics, which he himself picks. I look forward to anything he publishes.

This is a fascinating read from the very first page. Sacks delves into the brain's reaction to trauma and the subsequent musicality that follows. Includes amazing stories of individual lives changed forever by the music they hear in their heads.

My husband's recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease sparked my interest in music therapy as never before. The cases that are shared with readers by Dr. Sacks are so compelling that I could not put the book down until I had read it all, including every foot note. In this book I did find some answers to my own questions about the effects of music in stimulating or calming patients with these neurological disorders. I LOVE this book.

As a lifelong amateur musician, I really enjoyed this analysis of music and the brain. I sometimes wake up with a complex musical composition in my head; unfortunately it disappears before I can write it down or even sing it. I also have songs in my head all day. Sacks explains this and much more. Fascinating, especially if you're into music.

As a music professor, my question was would the book be of use in my teaching as well as being readable. The book is written in such a way that any intelligent reader can enjoy it. In addition the subject is treated in a highly scientific manner without sounding academic. For my students who want to investigate some of these issues the bibliography is indispensable. The author is extremely well qualified in the subject, so I guess the real surprise is that his writing manages to be interesting while still communicating the material at a high level.

If you are looking for conclusions about the relationship of music to the human brain, look elsewhere. The book consists mostly of case studies of people with brain disorders that somehow relate to music. With no attempts by the author to synthesize the information into useful observations, reading it makes one feel like a voyeur at a freak show.

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"We humans are a musical species no less than a linguistic one...In some cases, music can provoke seizures [and other disorders]...[but] it may be especially powerful and have great therapeutic potential for patients with a variety of neurological conditions...There is now an enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery...these new insights of neuroscience are exciting beyond measure, but there is always a certain danger that the simple art of observation may be lost...and the richness of the human context ignored. Clearly, both approaches are necessary, blending 'old fashioned' observation and description with the latest in technology, and I have tried to incorporate both of these approaches here. But above all, I have tried to listen to my patients and subjects, to imagine and enter their experiences--it is these which form the core of this book."

The above is found in this fascinating book by neurologist, professor, and author Dr. Oliver Sacks.

As the book's subtitle says, it deals with "Tales of Music and the [Human] Brain." Contrary to the books title "Musicophilia," (roughly meaning "a love of music"), it profiles music (mainly classical or more correctly western art music) as a treatment and music as an affliction. (The quotation which titles this review was uttered by a famous composer.)

Note that Sacks does not give the neural mechanisms of why music is say an effective form of treatment for a particular affliction (but he does offer hypotheses). This is because research of this type is still in its infancy.

All chapters are interesting and increased my understanding a thousand fold but here are my favourite chapters:

(1) Musical seizures
(2) Musicogenic epilepsy
(3) Brainworms, sticky music, and catchy tunes
(4) Musical hallucinations
(5) Musical savants
(6) Music and blindness
(7) Music and amnesia
(8) Music and Tourette's Syndrome (a neurological disorder characterized, in advanced cases, by large involuntary bodily movements, noises like barks and whistles, and in many instances, an uncontrollable urge to utter obscenities)
(9) Parkinson's Disease (PD) and music therapy (PD is a degenerative disease characterized by rhythmic tremor and muscle rigidity)
(10) Musician's dystonia (lack of normal muscle tone due to disease or infection of the nervous system)
(11) Musical dreams
(12) Music and depression
(13) Music and emotion
(14) Dementia and music therapy (dementia is severe organic mental deficiency)

This book has extensive footnotes throughout and many of them are extremely interesting. I found that if I decided to skip a particular footnote that I did not lose the thread of what was being expressed by the author. In other words, the footnotes are optional reading.

Finally, the only problem I had was that there were no brain diagrams (or one good brain diagram) to help the reader see what brain structures Sacks was referring too. It was as if Sacks assumed everyone reading his book would have a background in neuroanatomy. (In my case, I happen to have some appropriate background but I realize all readers will not have this background.) To overcome this deficit and to make reading easier, I recommend that you photocopy a good diagram of the brain that has key structures clearly labelled.

In conclusion, I leave you with the last words that appear in Oliver Sack's incredible book:

"Music is part of being human, and there is no human culture in which it is not highly developed and esteemed. Its very ubiquity may cause it to be trivialized in daily life; we switch on a radio, switch it off, hum to a tune, tap our feet, find the words of an old song going through our minds, and think nothing of it. But to those who are lost in [some neurological condition or some other condition such as] dementia, the situation is different. Music is no luxury to them , but a necessity, and can have a power beyond anything else to restore them to themselves...at least for a while."

(first published 2007; preface; 4 parts or 29 chapters; main narrative 345 pages; acknowledgements; bibliography; index)

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The major problem this books faces is that we don't understand the workings of the brain, so the chapters are merely phenomenological expositions of various abnormalities which in most (but not all) cases relate in some way to musical abilities. In none of these cases do we know what the underlying causes of the disorders are and so this is just a collection of anecdotal stories about human musical oddities.

The footnotes are also just painful to read as there are so many of them, and as one of the previous reviewers said they make points that should have been in the main text

Musicophilia is an astonishing book. Granted that is slightly skewed toward people who already have a thriving understanding & appreciation of western classical music; nevertheless, the sheer variety of ways that musical harmony is connected to the human "self", starting at the basic neurological (anatomical) level to the abstract notions of identity & personality strikes you overwhelmingly.

This book is organized by stories that reflect different kinds of aberrations in our appreciation of music. And this range of aberrations is quite simply mind-boggling. Dystonia, aphasia, disharmonia. Stories of people with the tic who can only relax while they perform music, of prodigious children with Williams Syndrome - sociable & musical all the time - but unable to add three & five. Stories of amnesiac husbands whose muscles remember only music, of people who cannot talk but can sing old songs. It is quite frankly a remarkable book to read.

Like I said, this book has a lot of nuances of western classical music stitched into many stories, & the portions on cure & treatment for a particular aberration are sporadic.

Nevertheless, even for a layman with little knowledge of both anatomy & music, this book is thoroughly enjoyable & is a wonderful chronicle of all aspects musical - & singularly human.

S!

Readers who were fascinated by Oliver Sacks's other books about the mysteries of the human mind will not be disappointed in "Musicophilia." Sacks describes the mental state of people who cannot understand music, who remember nothing but music, and who hear music that isn't there. As always, Sacks is concerned with the person behind the ailment; ever compassionate, ever understanding. Another wonderful book from a master in his field.

This book is not about music - it's about being human, and the implied hard wiring of the brain - which includes musical predispositions, maybe to most of us. But then Mr Sacks did reveal that there is no evidence from their works that either Henry James of William James had any musical interest at all.

And that's where the frustration set in. There was so much about injured people (and those who may just have been different) that pointed towards things that were - for me - not properly explored or even speculated about. There were so many hints about music and the mind, but I could never push the fog away.

I was reminded somewhat of Umberto Eco's 'The Search for the Perfect Language', a book I rated very highly. Perhaps Mr Eco struggled to do what Mr Sacks shied away from. And just, perhaps, they were talking of the same circuits in the brain. Language as music; music as language?

Some of the little stories Mr Sacks told - often from his personal experience - triggered resonances for me. Perhaps I didn't experience them as strongly as described in this book, but nevertheless I could identify with them.

By chance we have recently had a TV series on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in which a group of disadvantaged people (suffering mental illness, drug abuse and the like) were brought together to sing in a choir. Despite having limited musical training they were able to produce real music. Perhaps this was an illustration of linking into the inbuilt music circuits of the brain that Mr Sacks hints at.

other recommendations:
'The Choir of Hard Knocks' see http://www.abc.net.au/tv/hardknocks/operahouse.htm
'The Phantom in the Brain' (Ramachandran)
'The Search for the Perfect Language' (Eco)

This book covers an interesting topic, but I found it impossible to read. I made it through the first 30-40 pages and then gave up. The issue is that the author footnotes items that really should be in the main text. At least 80% of the pages in this book have footnotes, and not short ones, and some footnotes continue on to the next page. You'll be happily reading along and trying to follow his anecdote and then you see a 20 line footnote. You go read that (since the footnotes are interesting and usually key to his story), and then, "ok, where was I again?". Reading this book is like talking to someone who is telling you a story and keeps going on tangents; someone who is telling you about his fishing trip and ends up explaining where the boat came from, telling you about the time the engine didn't start, and then how he met his wife, before finishing the fishing story.

Sacks leads the reader gently by hand, even while using neurological jargon, into amazing stories of patients who live through situation we would not have imagined. And they all involve music and how humans experience it.

Musicophilia made me realize how others perceive music. It was a shock. I assumed that everyone experienced music the same way. Wrong!

Do you ever ask anyone what happens when they hear music? I didn't before I read this book. Now I plan to ask everyone.

Dr. Sacks has the kind of fine writing style and awareness of music that makes his tales seem as appealing as the cases that Dr. Sigmund Freud wrote about. As Dr. Sacks pointed out, Dr. Freud didn't care for music so that gentleman failed to investigate and report on many of the phenomena in this book.

We don't exactly know why the mind and body interact with music in the ways that they do. Part is undoubtedly heredity. Part is undoubtedly due to exposure to musical influences. Some may relate to the language spoken in the home. Difficulties with seeing may also be an influence. Injuries to the body and brain can play a large role. Dr. Sacks does a masterly job of using case after case to explore one aspect or another of these dimensions so that a complex picture emerges that's even more remarkable than the brain processes involved in reading.

One of the biggest surprises in the book is that musical talent seems to be inhibited by some parts of the brain. In similar way, music can also inhibit some other brain functions that we would like to get rid of.

I had always wondered about those with perfect pitch, and the book explores that. There are also wonderful sections on other seemingly inherited musical abilities.

Dr. Sacks adds a lot of perspective to the history of music by making observations about various composers and the way that their compositions reflect certain musical abilities than others while explaining how the mental processes are different. Today, we can map the brain's activation in order to get clues about why certain behaviors are possible. That final perspective adds a lot to the case histories.

If you are like me, you'll find some of the cases to be heart-wrenching. I was comforted a bit to realize that music made those sad lives better so there's reason to rejoice in that sense.

So what was my big personal discovery? When I listen to classical music of any kind, I can choreograph a ballet along with costumes, sets, and props to go along with the music that I see in color when I close my eyes . . . even if the music has never been used for ballet. I didn't realize that others usually don't do that. What a wonder!

... I was a little disappointed. 4.5 stars

I enjoy every book by Dr. Sacks. He's always insightful, empathetic, and a brilliant storyteller. All the things you like about Dr. Sacks' writing you will find in full in this book. I really like this book. Once again, Dr. Sacks makes the stories of his patients come alive and demonstrate brilliantly the relationship between our mental states and abilities and the physiological functioning of the brain. Bravo. If you like Sacks, you will like this book (very much I would say.)

But ... my but: With a title like Musicophilia ("the love of music") I was expecting much more about WHY we humans ENJOY music so much. Why are we the musical ape? This is only touched on tangentially in this book. I felt a bit of false advertising in the title. I've read Anthony Storr's book "Music and the Mind" and "Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination" by Robert Jourdain (both are good.) With Dr. Sacks' title (and maybe it was chosen by his publisher, this often happens) I expected something more in that vein: the enjoyment of music. (And so, I still await further explorations ...)

All in all a great book. Enjoy.

This book is fantastic. I have read most of Oliver Sacks'' books and find this one to be equally interesting and informative.

Interesting book about the interface between neurology and music. Many phenomena such as musical hallucinations, tone deafness, absolute pitch etc. and the people experiencing them (most of them musicians) are described, unfortunately with little explanations as to what mechanisms are at play. But then, not too much is known about how the brain processes music.

This book is similar to most of Sack's other books in that it consists mostly of discussions of case histories. But it is very definitely more than just a listing of case histories. In particular, it deals with the relationship between music and the brain. It begins with the story of a man involved in an accident that suddenly develops a desire to play the piano, and shows what he manages to accomplish. It goes on to discuss what the author calls "earworms," in other words, melodies that get stuck in the mind (everyone encounters them). There is also a long discussion of amusia -- an affliction in which a person does not enjoy or appreciate music in any way.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion of perfect pitch. This is the ability of a person to state or pinpoint what note or tone on the piano (or other instrument)is being played. Sacks points out that some musicians have it, but others do not. In particular, Mozart had it, but Wagner and Schumann did not. He mentions that it is relatively rare in that only about 1 in 11,000 have it.

I also enjoyed the chapter on musical savants. They are people with very low IQs that have amazing musical talents or abilities. Some of them manage to memorize thousands of different melodies. Interestingly, he points out that there is no such thing as an "instant" savant; in all cases they have spent years developing their special skills. Along the same line, he discusses and analyzes the special skills of blind musicians, pointing out that in most cases they have a very strong "feeling' for the music.

Two things in the book struck close to home for me. The first was "phantom fingers"-- a situation in which someone has lost his hand but still feels his fingers. My father lost his hand, and used to tell us that his finger occassonally got itchy (but, of course, there was nothing he could do about it). The second was musicians dystonia, which is a pain or cramping of the fingers as a result of overplaying or overpractising the piano. He discusses the case of Leon Fleischer and Gray Graffman. I've known people who have suffered from this and have suffered from it to some degree myself, so it was interesting to see it discussed

Overall the book contains a lot of information, and is well-written, and there's no arguing about the authority of the author. Some may be disappointed, however, in that they didn't learn as much about music as they thought they would.

As a semi-professional old time musician, I looked forward to getting this book to see what it had to say about that music that all my musical friends and myself have running around in our heads most of the time. I am very happy with this book. I believe it explains much that I have often wondered about that ever present music that fills my days with entertainment andyes, even practice without instruments. You can indeed practice within your mind and it does do you some good. Sometimes it all the practice that is needed. I highly recommend Dr. Sacks book to all.

I have been a fan of Oliver Sacks for many years. His books are extremely well written, although they can be a little esoteric at times. His insights into the neurological aspects of mental deficits via injury, illness, or other circumstances really bring to light the reality of how incredible the human brain is. In Musicophilia, we learn how music really is the universal language and how our brain can use it in spite of debillitations such as Parkinson's. He introduces us to the phenomenom of synthesia, the remarkable story of Clive Wearing, and other instances of the incredible plasticity of the mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the relationship between music and the brain - I promise you'll find it fascinating.

Dr. Sacks is a superb author-- I've also enjoyed THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT and UNCLE TUNGSTEN. MUSICOPHILIA is excellent too; I am interested both in classical music and in current theories of how the brain works... and this book weaves these two subjects together. Fascinating!

Like much of Oliver Sacks' writing, this book takes on an irritating tone of self-congratulation and navel gazing. It also contains several implausible personal anecdotes in which Sacks claims he himself has experienced some of the cognitive abnormalities of his patients.

I have read that an early criticism of his writing, in which a reviewer noted the cold, clinical attitude that Sacks took towards his subjects, really got under his skin. He has since remedied this flaw with a much worse flaw. That is, after going over the juicy details of whatever neurological anomaly he is studying in a patient, he resorts to a silly formula of waxing rhapsodic about the deep connection that he felt with the patient despite his or her condition, and concludes with some metaphysical speculation about just what it all means. Hmmmmmm. It reeks of forced (perhaps false) sentiment.

Also, the amount of original work that he has done for this book is pitiful. There is a HUGE amount of self-reference in this book, especially to his book "An Anthropologist on Mars". Those who have read that book, or the similar "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" will be rightfully irritated. Even worse than these formulae, though, are the ridiculous grandiose, implausible, and often irrelevant anecdotes from his New York cultural buddies, who are as fascinated by themselves as Sacks is by himself. The chapters on synesthesia are almost unreadable.

There are a few things that save this book from being a total waste, however. His chapter on Williams' Syndrome is nicely written, new, and informative. Some of his personal experiences with Clive Wearing are also interesting, though most of the material has already been covered in the several documentaries made about Wearing.

This is the last book by Oliver Sacks I will read. I know his shtick and I'm sick of it. Unless you are really a fan of Sacks, I would pass it up.

Peter Teiman Franklin here,
Superb book on the different nuances of human consciousness.
Peter Teiman Franklin
Sweden

I am a huge classical aficionado myself, with more than 600 CDs. And, I have, from a philosophy POV, an interest in neuroscience to boot.

Nonetheless, the book was a bit thin, to me. I think it's more anecdotal and less in the way of research, or research-based conjecture, than his top works. And, I've heard at least some of these before, or similar from other psychologists, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists.

Plus (and this is not just a complaint about Sacks, but a couple of other books on the subject as well), why don't we have case studies of people with brain issues with non-classical music, as one other reviewer notes?

As a long-time fan of Oliver Sacks, I didn't hesitate to order his latest book, Musicophilia. And it did not disappoint. Possibly the most upbeat of all his books on the effects of mental disorders, here he treats those 'differently abled' with respect to music with the respect usually reserved for those more conventionally equipped. I learned a lot about music as well, and enjoyed the trip.

The ability of this writer to truly integrate scientific, cultural-thematic and empathic material is truly unusual, if not unique. Along the way, the reader is taken through a tour of Neurology, Psychology, History, his personal medical journey and into the worlds of many people who have somewhat special existences or circumstances.
While the work is very interesting, it is fragmented as are other of his compilations. The work is thus akin to factual short story compilations rather than a typical single-track novel-like stream of material. Some people may find the jargon, mostly all explained, to be interesting.
The big problem with a work so expansive is how to give enough material for many and not give too much for others.
Dr. Sacks does a good job of this, certainly much better than I could do. Whether blocks of material to highlight more detailed material (for those of a more scientific and/or musical bent) might have been a distraction or assistance is up to a reader's style. Such subtexts seen in many nonfiction works are positive, but would impact this author's narrative style.
An excellent book, but probably not for all.

Having two sons who are musicians I found the book fascinating from both psychological and nerological perspectives.It gave me insight into my sons psycholgical and musical development