Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf and (revised and expanded) 2008 by Vintage Books. This edition is the paperback by Picador 2008. 391 pages + bibliography + index.

A fellow bookcrosser wrote, "I almost wish I had a rare brain disorder so I could get to meet Dr. Sacks."

No wonder. Oliver Sacks writes so sympathetically about his interesting patients and has such a creative hold on his practice that one does not feel reading "nonfiction" but a most entertaining book, with many amazing stories. For example; A surgeon developed a strong passion for listening and playing music after he was struck by lightning. (I almost wish I was struck by lightning :D). A conductor developed amnesia after brain infection, but he has the memory and ability to conduct and sing music, yet he can't remember anything else. A research chemist's personality was changed after she suffered a seizure. She suddenly had the desire to listen to music all the time. A demented person sings perfectly in an a cappella singing group. A classical piano player performed with one hand for many years because of a condition called dystonia which affected his right hand.

There is a lot of knowledge for us usual and untalented people as well: musical dreams; music and emotion; brainworms, sticky music, catchy tunes. How can healthy persons have musical hallucinations? Why have we two ears? How does it come that the absolute pitch is more common among Chinese people? Stories about musical savants are told by Sacks, as well as stories about the musical experiences of blind people. Synesthesia is a kind of crossing of sense perceptions: a tune can be "seen" as a certain colour, for instance.

An excellent book and a Must for everyone who loves music and is interested in the brain.

-ruzena

Bookray. (closed)

* Tintti (Jkl, Finland)
* chirel (Tre, Finland)
* lukutuoli (Tre, Finland)
* CandyDarling (Hki, Finland)
* Annelis (Kerava, Finland; int'l)
* hyphen8 (Hawaii, US; US only)
* laevina (Colorado, US; US first, int'l ok)
* ex2 (Taipei, Taiwan; int'l)
* annadvarna (Greece)
* dutch-book (Utrecht, NL)
* souram (Switzerland)
and then free to go where souram dictates :) --->

EDIT. See Journal Entry Dec 19, 2011.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy!

Got the book today. Thanks, ruzena!

I enjoyed reading this book a lot, even though all the neurological details were a bit too much at times. Luckily Sacks writes very well, and explains things so well that it is not too complicated for a layman to read. And the stories of Sacks' patients are just fascinating! I just loved reading them.

I found the last part ("Emotion, Identity, and Music") the most interesting, perhaps because it is about things that cannot be explained by science (at least not yet).

Sending the book to chirel soon.

The book arrived today. Thanks Tintti and Ruzena

I really truly loved this book! It was full of amazing facts and stories. I also learned a lot about music theory as a result, although it might have been worth it to try and find out more on my own to better understand what Sacks wrote.

I have been advertising this book to evryone and anyone since the first day I started reading it.

So thank you very much for this wonderful chance. I also apologise for keeping the book for more than the promised six weeks. I've lost my sense of time and it really didn't seem that long at all.

And next to Lukutuoli.

I went to chirel today just to get this book as soon as possible :) I have to finish one book before starting this one.

This was just fascinating! Sacks combines scientific information with really interesting case stories in a way, that I really admire it. I have studied some neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and music years ago , which made it perhaps easier for me to follow the text - I suppose it might be quite difficult to read some parts of this book without any knowledge of brain's structure?

I wanted to read aloud almost all the case descriptions to my family members while reading this, they were really interesting. I even got an odd feeling, it might be not so bad to have an organic brain disease - then you could see what would happen in your brain and personality. These stories made me humble, too, it's only a small change in your brain structure and your life can change in such an enormous way.

I have absolute pitch, which was noticed during the pre-school years. I knew, that my uncle's motorboat was in G ;) That's why the most interesting part of the book for me was "Absolute Pitch: Papa Blows His Nose in G"! In fact I would have liked to read much more about absolute pitch - perhaps I must find some more articles from the bibliography, which can be found in the end of the book.

Next to CandyDarling!

#38 for Reduce Mount TBR 2010 Challenge by DoveiLibri

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Musicophilia will travel next to CandyDarling. Enjoy!

I received the book yesterday, thank you!

I loved this book! There were so many amazing stories, and I learned a lot while reading. I didn't find the neurological parts difficult, but instead I wished I were more knowledgeable about classical music. I felt I would have gotten even more out of this book had I read "Classical Music for Dummies" or something similar before this. ;) I've started listening more to classical music since finishing this book some weeks ago, and I'm planning on reading more about music and the brain too. Thank you ruzena for offering this book as a ring, I don't know when I would have stumbled upon this book otherwise. I'll give the book to Annelis today.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Giving the book to Annelis at the bookcrossing meeting today.

I have liked everything that I have read by Oliver Sacks be it a paper on the Internet or a book. I am sure that this ls equally interesting. Thank you!

This book was not light reading even if Oliver Sacks can write interestingly.
The brain is a curious instrument. It is not easy to play it if something goes wrong.
I have not met as many interesting people as Oliver Sacks, not by far. But I used to know some persons who made me think about the brain. One neighbour had a traffic accident and afterwards he could not orientate. He went for a walk and got lost until he noticed that if he turned to the right at every corner, he eventually came back home again. They moved away soon afterwards, so I don't know if he got better later.
Another neighbour had a stroke or infarct on his way to work. He was saved to the life but his brain was damaged. He could move and talk like before but his behaviour was that of a child of 1-2-years-old. He used to escape during the night in his underwear if his wife fell asleep and do other crazy things. The wife could not cope taking care of the physically strong man 24 hours a day so they finally put him in an institute. There he was sedated so that he did not want to escape anymore. But now he could not speak either. The family visited him but he was unable to speak. Then his daughter gave him pen and paper and to the great surprise of everyone he could still communicate by writing and his grammar and handwriting were as perfect as ever. He had been working at a publisher.

Now I can take the book to the post as the next in the ring, Hyphen8 comes back home one of these days.
Thanks for the possibility to read this interesting book, Ruzena!

This book is # 46 in my Reduce Mount TBR Challenge 2010 arranged by Doveilibri

This book is # 51 in my Keep Them Moving 2010 Challenge arranged by Guinaveve

Still catching up with myself after being gone for almost 2 weeks, then coming home to a sinus headache, a six hour time difference, and a ton of work waiting to pounce on me as soon as I walked in the office door...

This book arrived yesterday and it was a wonderful surprise. It was accompanied by bookmarks, postcards, and a huge batch of great postage stamps from Finland for my mom's collection - thanks very much Annelis!

I have 2 other bookring books ahead of this one (one arrived just before I left on vacation and one arrived while I was gone) but I will get to this as soon as possible, I promise. :)

Other copies on my BookCrossing shelf:

• 13633074 (audio)
• 13710369 (paper)

Just an update: I'm about halfway through, so I'm still hoping to get this out within six weeks as requested.

It would go faster if I didn't read the footnotes, but they're interesting too!

Update again: life has been crazy - way too much work and I'm exhausted when I get home. Too distracted all the time and I managed to bang up my car this morning.

I haven't forgotten about the book: I just read the chapter about amnesia (heartbreaking stuff) and I'll get it out as soon as I can.

Just about done, so I sent a PM to the next person on the list.

The chapter about amputees made me think of Larry Niven's stories of Gil the Arm, and the parts about Parkinson's and dementia made me wonder if music therapy could have been used with my grandparents.

All in all, a fascinating book that made me think. Sorry to take so long with it.

This book is now on its way to laevina in Colorado. Enjoy! (Media mail, so it will probably take at least a couple of weeks.)

Thanks for the book hyphen8. Will get to reading it this week during a snow day! :>)

Wow! The brain is so cool! A long book to read for me - I read it within two days and liked his writing style too. And how music appreciation and styles can affect us or be affected.

Sent a PM to ex2 for their info.

off into the wild . . . to ex2

I just received this book and look forward to reading it. Thanks Laevina!! Just a warning I might need an extra week. I had a baby two weeks ago so my reading speed has been a bit lower however I didn't want to pass this book up. Hopefully I can sneak some reading time while she is sleeping. OK so I might be hoping for a lot:)

I apologize that I kept this book so long and unfortunately could not get it finished. It was very interesting and will have to see if I can get it some other time. I PM to get the next persons information..

Just received it!

Hello fellow bookcrossers!
I just finished reading this excellent book and it is available for the next in the list. I enjoyed it very much. For people who like non fiction books of this kind and enjoy music as well this is the perfect combination. There is some terminology but it shouldn't turn off any readers: it is so well written, in a humourous way, I'm sure you will love it. I especially liked the parts he explains that people that are not especially good at music (like myself) may nonetheless enjoy it passionately and with gusto!
Thank you ruzena for accepting me in this ring!

The book has arrived today at my doorstep. I'm looking forward to this read.

I finished reading this book and loved it. I loved the actual case stories. The neurological technological parts were a bit hard, but luckily there were enough alternations between those two.
I've already received souram's adress and the book will travel on today to him.

To the next participant, souram.

The book arrived today, thanks :)

Interesting book, I didn't know how music could really help for instance people who had a stroke. As music gives rhythm... Impressive story of the amnesia hit man and his wife Deborah ! Some paragraphs of the book come from "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" but there's no scandal as I liked as well "The Man Who..."

Sent to Assia N, Dubai, UAE.

the book has arrived a week ago

this book has arrived one week ago =)
from souram

I've read the book and I think that:Musicophilia is one of a kind book , Oliver Sacks turns his neurological eye on how music interacts with our brain. Music occupies more areas of our brain than language does, and for most people, music stirs memories and emotions and inhabits our daily lives. For some people, music can spark other senses including taste, can calm or animate people with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, or in the case of a musician who lost the ability to remember, it allows him to still perform professionally. Yet for others, music can be a cacophony that attacks their minds or be the source of hallucinations. Musicophilia has received mostly positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "In the end, Sacks's catalog of oddities sheds little systematic light on the mystery of music. He cannot be blamed for this - the science of music is still in its early days. Readers will probably be grateful that Sacks, unlike Freud, is happy to revel in phenomena that he cannot yet explain."



P.s: Can You suggest me anyone I can send the book to .

Bookray continued!

* raluk68 (Romania - prefers EU shipping)
* salvami (Ireland - prefers Europe)
* ETMadrid (UK - Europe if possible)
* pam99 (UK - int'l)
* oppem (Oregon US - prefer US)
* LittleWhiteBird (California, US - US)
* jmsmom (Oklahoma US - ?)
* kobie03 (Canada -?)

EDIT Jan 12, 2012 PM'ed Assia_n

EDIT Feb 19, 2012: Another PM to Assia_n sent.

EDIT March 6, 2012: Hopeless. To keep the ray going, I bought another copy. No problem. Might be my last bookray anyway :D

Thanks Assia_n for this wishlist book. I have a few friends interested in reading it