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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.

Average Customer Rating:

Musicophilia	Customer Rating:
Oliver Sacks has written many books for lay people. As they all are, this book is informative, interesting, funny, personal. It shows how important music is to humankind. In case vignettes and in discussion Sacks shows how music affects us positively and sometimes, alas, negatively. It is throughout very compelling.

Musicophilia	Customer Rating:
I received the book I ordered very promptly. It was in excellent condition just as stated by the seller. Thank you for such good service.

disappointing	Customer Rating:
I was intrigued by the topic, but the book itself was a disappointment. Lots of repetitive annecdotes that didn't provide much real insight. How do books like this get published?

great reading for anyone interested in the brain, the mind, and music

Customer Rating:

This book is very readable even for those outside the scientific and medical communities. Sacks lends insights into the human mind and its physiological underpinnings by walking the reader through a series of cases studies, showcasing both the weird and wild things music does to our brains, as well as the weird and wild music that can be created by some very special brains. Perhaps most importantly, his case studies are not written in clinical, sterile prose, but in the language of a man genuinely infatuated with music and the human mind. His excitement is often contagious.

Good Stuff,	Customer Rating:
I liked the book but i was expecting it to be more scientific and less theoretical. its got lots of words so as a techy, i skipped around a lot and used it more as a reference, thus... I recommend it as a reference book for anyone doing research in the music therapy realm.