amy, my wife, got me the new oliver sacks book musicophilia and it’s really incredible. i’ve just started reading it, but the book grabs you at the preface. i’ve read one other sacks book, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, which was really great. sacks is an amazing writer and quite a scientist (he’s a neurologist). i think about how the brain reacts to music almost daily. i’ve also often wondered why humans seem to have some primal instinct that draws them towards music/rhythms and the reason why some people have a greater ability to “just get it” and a “brain” for it. oliver sacks covers this in an amazing fashion. if you love both science and music, this thing is a must read. it’s quite inspiring.
there are some videos of sacks talking about a few of the subjects in the book:
