Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

by OliverSacks (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.51

  An illuminating book about the power of music, from the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat .Oliver Sacks has been hailed by the New York Times as 'one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century'. In this eagerly awaited new book, the subject of his uniquely literate scrutiny is music: our relationship with it, our facility for it, and what this most universal of passions says about us.In chapters examining savants and synaesthetics, depressives and musical dreamers, Sacks succeeds not only in articulating the musical experience but in locating it in the human brain. He shows that music is not simply about sound, but also movement, visualization, and silence. He follows the experiences of patients suddenly drawn to or suddenly divorced from music. And in so doing he shows, as only he can, both the extraordinary spectrum of human expression and the capacity of music to heal.Wise, compassionate and compellingly readable, Musicophilia promises, like all the best writing, to alter our conception of who we are and how we function, to lend a fascinating insight into the mysteries of the mind, and to show us what it is to be human.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.51

  'A humane discourse on the fragility of our minds, of the bodies that give rise to them, and of the world they create for us.' Daily Telegraph Oliver Sacks' compassionate tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we understand our own minds. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians and everyday people those struck by affliction, unusual talent and even, in one case, by lightning to show not only that music occupies more areas of the brain than language does, but also that it can calm and organize, torment and heal. Always wise and compellingly readable, these stories alter our conception of who we are and how we function, and show us an essential part of what it is to be human. 'Fascinating. Music, as Sacks explains, can pierce the heart directly . And this is the truth that he so brilliantly focuses upon that music saves, consoles and nourishes us' Daily Mail 'Irresistible, astonishing and moving' Spectator 'Deeply warm and sympathetic' Guardian

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $18.50