Sacks stuff

I like him for lots of reasons. He makes science understandable, he stretches my vocabulary, he has a sense of humor, he has an English accent, he writes about bizarre things that happen to very ordinary people, he writes about medical stuff, his writing makes me aware of my own body and its mortality, he's an unusual neurologist...is that enough?

Actually, Abby, I first read his book Awakenings when I was learning more about Parkinson's Disease. Two of my Dad's siblings (Leo, Selma) and his grandfather died of a form of that disease, so I wanted to know more about it. I read the book long before Uncle Kay developed the disease. What is interesting to me is that almost all of my Dad's siblings (and Dad too) have functional tremors without the Parkinson's. Awakenings is about the early use of L-dopa drugs on Parkinson's patients. The movie (with Robin Williams as Sacks) is quite good, also (I can't remember if it has any "flies" in it or not. I often don't remember them when recommending...) The thing about his books is that he takes what one would think would be a boring or technical topic and makes them into something fascinating.

I really enjoyed his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which tells of the experiences of his patients with various neurological disorders and incidents. This book is particularly readable.I read more of his material after Grandma had her stroke.

But if you want to really know about his life, then by all means read Uncle Tungsten. It's a marvelous memoir of a person with a scientific mind and a family that encouraged his interests. It's extremely readable as well. Judging by your reaction to the Curie bio, I think this memoir would be right up your alley. I know your Mom and I loved it!

I am going to order Migraine which is his earliest work and probably one of the few of his I have not read. I learned from last night's interview that he was working in a headache clinic at the time and that he was intrigued with the visual auras that often accompany migraines. Dad and I get what we call "amigrainous" headaches...or the visual aura for about an hour and then sometimes the actual headache and sometimes not. Ivan is plagued with migraines, so I thought I might learn something from this book even though it's from the 1970s.

Try him. You'll like him.