Book Details
| Title: | This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession | |
| Author: | Daniel J. Levitan | |
| Times Read: | 1 | |
| Last Read: | 05.19.11 |
Other Books Read By This Author (0)
| Date Read | Note |
| 05.19.11 | Molly picked this book up for me at Frugal Media a loooong time ago and it finally made it to the top of my queue. I was very interested in the subject matter but it had to wait until I was in the mood to read a hardcore non-fiction book. It took me a long time to read. For a while I was pretty disappointed with it. It seems like the first half of the book is all setup. This is what music is, this is what rhythm is, this is what your brain is, etc. Then even when it got to the "meat," it was still like "surprise! we like music. Furthermore, we like music if it's good!" and a lot of stuff that, surrounded by dry scientific syntax, I think anyone would realize they already knew. The promise of little factoids, interesting experiments to back up bold statements, and helpful insight was eluding me until the last three chapters or so, which were very good. So despite me really being ready to move on to the fastest read in my queue, I'm glad I read this for those last three chapters. The stuff on musical expertise (hey, it's only 10,000 hours of practice away!) and why we prefer certain music over others (as well as why, as I'm getting older, I'm finding it harder and harder to connect with new music) is fascinating stuff. Mostly though, I wish he'd have thrown in a few more roadie anecdotes amidst the science just to keep the pages turning. Seriously, it feels like I've been reading this book forever. |
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