I bought this book especially for a particular person at the bookcrossing convention in Edinburgh next weekend. We're doing a sectret santa type thing, and this book is for my partner. By the time you read this journal entry, I guess we'll have been and come back. I hope that we both had a great time, and that you will enjoy this book which I know you have been wanting to read. I'm not sure whether or not I was supposed to register it first, so I did, but obviously you are very welcome to put it in your permanent collection if that's what you want to do. I haven't read it, but I have read some other Oliver Sacks (Man Who Mistook... and Awakenings) and he's a brilliant writer.

Lastly, I'm really sorry I ruined the surprise.

thank you treehugger - a most excellent gift!!! - and the chocolate too (I've not tried Vivani before). I look forward to enjoying both of them very much!

I've not read any Sacks before - but a newspaper review of Musicophilia made it sound so interesting that I made a note to get a copy... which now, thanks to you, I have!

[Spooky footnote: I bought my NSS parter an Oliver Sacks book too - although that one was an account of his trip to Mexico in search of unusual ferns... so perhaps less representative of his work as a whole?]

I *finally* managed to finish this - after reading, on and off, for several years now! The subject area is REALLY interesting... but this volume is quite heavy-going (and big) to read all at once. Saying that, it is fairly accessible to the general reader I think - it just requires some concentration and focus - which I have been somewhat lacking in for several years now (due to the pandemic). Really glad I read it though - its content is fascinating. I would have perhaps got through it quicker if the sections had been split across different books - it would have felt more manageable then. But it is what it is - and I have made my point.

Releasing onto the bookshelf at the York BookCrossing Meetup Group's current monthly meetup venue, The Eagle & Child pub...

As someone with medical knowledge, and much less musical knowledge,this was an interesting read and quite informative. The book did pull from several of his other works so may be less enjoyable if you have read others, but still shows the importance of music to us all.

Fly free!