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| Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain |  | Author: Oliver Sacks
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $2.25
as of 9/3/2010 06:07 CEST details
You Save: $23.75 (91%)
New (49) Used (84) Collectible (3) from $2.25
Seller: cherrybooks
Rating:  133 reviews
Sales Rank: 37,236
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.5
ISBN: 1400040817
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.11
EAN: 9781400040810
ASIN: 1400040817
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781400040810 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, December 2007: Legendary R&B icon Ray Charles claimed that he was "born with music inside me," and neurologist Oliver Sacks believes Ray may have been right. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain examines the extreme effects of music on the human brain and how lives can be utterly transformed by the simplest of harmonies. With clinical studies covering the tragic (individuals afflicted by an inability to connect with any melody) and triumphant (Alzheimer's patients who find order and comfort through music), Sacks provides an erudite look at the notion that humans are truly a "musical species." --Dave Callanan
Product Description
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does—humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people—from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; from people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds—for everything but music.
Our exquisite sensitivity to music can sometimes go wrong: Sacks explores how catchy tunes can subject us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day. Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer’s or amnesia.
Music is irresistible, haunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tells us why.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 133
Music, food for our brain August 18, 2010
GARY L. Garwood (chicago)
Dr. Sacks does a great job at helping us understand how our brain reacts to music. He identifies how important music is to all of us, though each of us interprets it differently. Intelligent reading!
gift for a friend July 7, 2010
D. Phillips
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
It looked like an interesting book, but I have not read it since it was a gift.
 Haven't Received it yet May 23, 2010
N. Clement (San Francisco)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I ordered the book about 1 week prior to leaving the SF Bay Area on my way to our summer place in BC, Canada. I chose the vendor because it was in WA and had it sent to a friend in a neighboring town because I wanted to avoid Canadian customs (time consuming). When I got to my friends home it still had not arrived and did not arrive until a few weeks later. It is still sitting there; so, I haven't' seen it. I know the book as I have read part of it, a loaner from a friend, and look forward to receiving it and finishing that read. But the vendor sure did take a long time...I probably won't use it again.
Musicophilia May 10, 2010
Ruth (Central, SC)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an interesting book for those who hear music in their ears.The author has many anecdotes and explains the brain, its complexity, and offers some insight into the problem, which apparently falls under Tinnitis. Sometimes the music is pleasant, sometimes not. There isn't much of a solution for the problem, but at least you realize you are not the only one, and are not crazy.
If you suffer from music hallucinations, read this book.It is easy to read.
Amazing book April 11, 2010
PPL (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading this books, you feel like wanting to be a neurologist and apply to work with Sacks. He is brillant and the book is a delight to read - as are his other books. I particularly enjoyed "The Anthropologist of Mars". The main theme about the book is music, but don't be fooled, although music is what connects all stories, it is mainly a book about the brain. Even if you are not a big music fan (as I am not) but enjoy learning about the mechanisms of the brain - this is very exciting - specially because it helped me to explain why I am not into music and why different people are touched in different ways by music. I understood why I found some songs interesting and others completely boring, for example.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 133
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