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READ: Books by Dr. Sacks read

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Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007, revised and expanded edition 2008)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 978-1-4000-3353-9
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In his latest book, Dr. Sacks investigates the power of music to move, to heal and to haunt us.

Vintage Sacks (2004)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 978-1-4000-3397-3
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Vintage Sacks includes the introduction and case study "Rose R." from Awakenings, as well as "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; "The Visions of Hildegard" from Migraine; excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind; "A Surgeon’s Life" from An Anthropologist on Mars; and two chapters from Sacks’s memoir Uncle Tungsten.

Oaxaca Journal (2002)
Paperback, National Geographic Directions, ISBN 0-7922-4208-4
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A trip to see ferns in Mexico turns into a meditation on Mesoamerican civilization, chocolate, agriculture, mescal, amateur naturalists and more.

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-70404-3
Hardcover, Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-375-40448-1

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A memoir of growing up in World-War-II England as part of an extraordinary scientific family.

The Island of the Colorblind (1997)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-70073-0
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An exploration of a society where total congenital colorblindness is the norm, this book is also a meditation on islands and the strange neurologic malady on Guam which resembles parkinsonism and Alzheimer’s, and may provide the key to these diseases.

An Anthropologist on Mars (1995)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-75697-3
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Seven paradoxical tales of patients adapting to neurological conditions including autism, Asperger’s syndrome, amnesia, epileptic reminiscence, Tourette’s syndrome, acquired colorblindness, and the restoration of vision after congenital blindness.

Seeing Voices (1989)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-70407-8
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A journey into the world of deaf culture, and the neurological and social underpinnings of the remarkable visual language of the congenitally deaf.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985)
Paperback, Touchstone Books, ISBN 0-684-85394-9
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The bestselling collection of clinical tales from the far borderlands of neurological and human experience.

A Leg to Stand On (1984)
Paperback, Touchstone Books, ISBN 0-684-85395-7
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Here the doctor becomes a patient, as Dr. Sacks chronicles the mountaineering accident which left him with the uncanny feeling of being "legless," and raises profound questions of the physical basis of identity.

Awakenings (1973, revised edition 1990)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-70405-1
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The classic account of survivors of the encephalitic lethargica pandemic and their return to the world after decades of "sleep." This book was the inspiration for the 1990 film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams as Dr. Sacks.

Migraine (1970, revised edition 1992)
Paperback, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-70406-x
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An investigation of the many manifestations of migraine, including the visual hallucinations and distortions of space, time and body image which migraineurs can experience.

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The Arts Initiative at Columbia University, 2009
Contact the Arts Initiative at 212.851.1872 or artsinitiative@columbia.edu

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