Thursday, March 15, 2012

Review: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

Title The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat
By Oliver Sacks
Pages 243
Genre Adult Non-Fiction
Recommended by Book club

First sentence Dr P. was a musician of distinction, well-known for many years as a singer, and then, at the local School of Music, as a teacher.

Synopsis
Clinical tales of neurological disorders.

What it has going for it
The stories that are in each chapter are quite fascinating, in a sad sort of way. Just reading about all these neurological disorders made me very grateful for my own properly working brain. Plus, it's always good to learn a few new things, am I right?

What's lacking
Holy crap! The stories were good but there was soooo much medical terminology to wade through. I'm fairly certain these were just medical papers turned into a book, so it's reasonable that we might have just been expected to know what all those words meant, IF we were doctors. You'd think when they turned it into a book they should have edited some things or, at least, explained the big words to us non-doctors. It was also very dated, being written back in the 70s, and a lot of the words he used are now considered inappropriate or just archaic.

Yea or Nay?
This one won't be for everyone but I found the stories interesting enough to recommend it.

20 comments:

  1. I'm kind of glad I didn't read this. I think I would've been bored silly. I may have enjoyed the stories, but I think the medical terminology would've turned me off completely!

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  2. Hear hear! Interesting but extremely annoying.

    And I'm super bummed that I missed the meeting last night and didn't get to see you guys. :(

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  3. I don't think this would be my thing at all. I'm not much into books about real life medical stuff. I prefer to keep it all in the world of make believe. Unless you're talking genetics and then strangely I'm fascinated.

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    1. Yes, luckily the brain rather fascinates me. ;)

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  4. Wait, your brain is properly working. Who figured out how to fix that neurological disorder. Hahaha Love you.

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  5. I need to read this! My first degree is in neuroscience and I've been missing it as I wade through nursing school. It is good to know that there is a lot of medical terminology for most people, though. I've never been able to tell in his other books and so I wasn't sure if I should recommend Sacks to people or not.

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    1. Yeah, it was hard for me but the brain has always fascinated me.

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  6. Interesting but not for me. Good for you for reading it.

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    1. Oh, this one is definitely NOT for everyone.

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  7. I have wanted to read this book for years. Still have not come across it. Maybe it's time I ordered it on the old Kindle and done with it. I love me some archaic medical terminology... especially if it's quackery.

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    1. LOL! You go right on ahead and do that. ;)

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  8. I need to write something up I suppose. It will be short! I didn't see Eliot today, but my friend heard about our ARC reaction from him! Too funny. And another library guy stopped me and said, "Hey, I hear you have a book!" :)So... I guess I better read it sooner than later, you think?

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    1. Yes, hurry and read it so I can have it! ;) Did he say we came off overly fan girly? I hope so.

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  9. I'm pretty sure that if I read this I'd self-diagnose myself with all the illnesses mentioned :P But it definitely sounds intriguing...though hard going with all that terminology

    The Cait Files

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    1. LOL! Yeah, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac myself. ;)

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  10. This has such a funny title, but it's non-fiction? I would think this would be about a man who was ignoring or neglecting his wife, and the wife would be the one narrating the story, lol.

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    1. Now that would have made it more interesting. ;)

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