"I read Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks because I'm a musician on the side of things, I'm very serious about music, and I've read some Oliver Sacks in the past. I wish that it had been the first Oliver Sacks book that I had read, whereas a lot of authors vaguely in the realm of Oliver Sacks, there's a deepening perspective on the world on some important cross-section of human experience by reading more books. This one I think was most suitable for me since I do have a passion for music.
It sort of zooms in on a category of his storytelling that's of most interest to me with neuroscientific matters and musical matters and here at their intersection, looking at stories, and speculating, and then moving onto the next story or a bunch of stories depending on which part of the book you're in. Some of them are single stories in a chapter; others are cluster of stories. Then sort of making a speculation and moving onto the next story or bunch of stories felt relatively superficial to me in terms of going somewhere new.
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who is a neuroscientist or an amateur, avocational neuroscience, cognitive science-type person who for whatever reason isn't much into music. There may not be too many of those, but I'm sure there are some. I think what he does really beautifully is makes a realm like music clinical or presents its clinical perspective without pulling you away from the actual experience of music.
For me personally, the book is a three, but I think that for anyone who hasn't really thought much or read much about the interface —"
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