Book Report Friday: Musicophilia

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks  is not your typical book from the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings. Sacks moves away from his traditional case studies into talking more in generalities about different neurological phenomena and how they relate to music. As a musician and a nerd, I found it fascinating. As a lover of cohesive literature, I found it slightly difficult to read. 

Sacks has a gift for describing people’s situations and how their brains’ work. He can write a chapter about someone’s life and make it really come to life. His work is deeply rooted in science, but he tells a story as well. He sets a scene, draws you in and teaches you a little bit about the various conditions that he diagnoses/treats/studies along the way. 

With Musicophilia, the concepts come first and the stories come later. It’s not always effective, especially when it starts to read more like a laundry list than like a narrative. But, when Sacks gets into his groove, the writing comes together and the book gets truly fascinating. And, even when things get a bit kludgy, it’s still darn interesting. Did you know that there are people who can taste music? I sure didn’t. And that perfect pitch can fade over time but tends to stick around when people are musically trained or if they lose other senses.

(I’m going to blindfold our future children and make them play the violin for 12 hours a day)

(Not really)

(Maybe the guitar)

Anyways, if you like music or you like brains. Or you like music and brains. Because you’re a zombie musician. Anyways, you should check this book out.