An Anthropologist on Mars

I’m very behind in my “book reports”, so thought I’d get caught up with a few tonight.  I recently finished reading An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, and I’ll admit that it was slow-going in spots.  I think I started reading it about two months ago, but I only picked it up a couple of times a week (usually in-between reading something else).  It’s a fascinating book full of incredible stories, but the chapters are LONG.  I loved every case study covered in the book (especially the study about the artist who become colour-blind), but the depth of detail was far more than I needed to know.  Sacks doesn’t write “over my head”, but he includes historical data and related materials which make the case studies a bit dry.  It’s like a really, really great slice of cheese that’s been grilled between two massive slices of bread—too much padding and the good stuff gets lost.  I’ve got a couple of Sacks’ other books on my Amazon wishlist and I’ll definitely read them (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is already here in the hallway book stack), but I’m going to grant myself permission to skim over the parts that drag.  I give you permission to do that, too :)

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 05/05 at 09:16 PM

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