'This is Your Brain on Music' by Daniel Levitin

This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin (3.0)

This book describes interactions of the brain (often through firing neurons) with music and discusses our relationship with music throughout our lives.  As with many non-fiction books, this book has many things one already knows and some interesting new pieces of info. In an attempt to posit a theory, the author needs to first give enough background for the reader to have knowledge to judge the theory. I found much of this background tedious to read. One of the most interesting points he makes is that our relation to music has only recently (last 500 years) included performers and audiences. Prior, everyone sang and made music regardless of what we now consider ‘talent’. I found this sad – how many people now only listen to music, when making music can be so liberating?

'Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law' by Mary Roach

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, Mary Roach (3.5)

As with all Mary Roach’s books, one gets a slew of interesting information about a relatively common topic (death, digestion, sex, etc.) delivered in a laugh-out-loud manner. The main difference with this book is the underlying sadness I felt. Here she covers the interactions of wildlife and humans, particularly when humans have encroached on the animal’s habitat and then label them ‘pests’ and move to eradicate them. In all cases the animals or birds are doing what they always do to survive, but it happens to inconvenience us humans. She tries to end on a positive note, but even with many funny asides, I found this book to be quite depressing.