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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I live this book, and I like to think that Sacks loved it, that it was a joy to compile all these tidbits. Humphry Davy, Muybridge, herring and libraries and the ferns by the roads in New York. I loved learning a little bit about so many things, and spending time with a man who seems to have both a great brain and a good heart.
Sacks is always a great read - even if this is his last book. Subjects are a bit wider ranging than just neurology, which is fun.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Not the first Oliver Sacks book I bought, but the first I read. It started off with how he likes swimming...a lot. This turned not just into memories, but wonderful stories of how Mr Sacks learned, was inspired, and with some of his final thoughts on how the world works. The last article was the most compelling for me, and I teared up a bit, as I recently lost my husband far too early. But the chapter on dementia and the loss of attention into smartphones was thought-provoking beyond anything else in a long time. This book just got better with each chapter and I wholly recommend it to anyone that appreciates the quest for knowledge. This is a memoir of Mr. Sacks' life in snippets as he discovered science, life, and how he was able to also contribute to the common good. He never lost his inquisitive nature.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I've always heard about Oliver Sacks and his case descriptions, and I thought picking up his essays would be an approachable way to read his work. I think that was a bad choice on my part because this would have been a more enjoyable read had I already been emotionally attached to the author. Together with how late in Sacks' life this was written (and maybe therefore didn't have the opportunity for a lot of editing), I felt like there was no overarching thread to the essays. Some of them were interesting, some of them were barely a couple of pages long and made me wonder why they were included at all. I do think Sacks has a place in normalizing neurological conditions in how nonjudgmental and empathetic he is of the patients he describes, but I feel like sometimes he falls into the medical curiosity side more than realizing that these are real people with real lives and real pain.
The other thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was his "young people these days" attitude towards anything to do with technology (including computers?). It comes off as really ignorant to rave about science and how important it was to his life without realizing that the technology he hates so much has brought science to many people who would never have had access to it otherwise (as opposed to a child of two doctors in Great Britain), as well as helping bring about so many modern scientific achievements. That was a pretty weird take in my opinion, though I agree it would be better for accessibility to keep providing large print books instead of expecting everyone to own an e-reader. (but can we please stop judging people for using their phones in public?)
The other thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was his "young people these days" attitude towards anything to do with technology (including computers?). It comes off as really ignorant to rave about science and how important it was to his life without realizing that the technology he hates so much has brought science to many people who would never have had access to it otherwise (as opposed to a child of two doctors in Great Britain), as well as helping bring about so many modern scientific achievements. That was a pretty weird take in my opinion, though I agree it would be better for accessibility to keep providing large print books instead of expecting everyone to own an e-reader. (but can we please stop judging people for using their phones in public?)
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Great reading! A collection of essays about a broad range of subjects (when they say “Sack’s myriad interests” they are not exaggerating), all of them interesting, well written, and not boring at all. From Sack’s young age to last days, you can see his “first loves” and “last tales”, and enjoy the ride while he describes interesting stories and characters that bring the subject closer to you.
From the 33 essays, I’ve bookmarked 20 as “great reading” — and those were only the ones I’ve absolutely loved. So you get the idea about the quality of this book.
From the 33 essays, I’ve bookmarked 20 as “great reading” — and those were only the ones I’ve absolutely loved. So you get the idea about the quality of this book.