Hallucinations

Title: Hallucinations
Author: Oliver Sacks
Genre: Neurology/Psychology
Pages: 352
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Hallucinations is a book about, well, hallucinations.  Each chapter describes a different kind of hallucination, going over stories of individuals who have been afflicted with them, and why they exist.  There's nothing more to it than that.
Thoughts: I enjoyed parts of this book immensely.  The parts I liked most were about how the brain will fill in missing information when our senses are impaired in some way.  I thank that tells us a lot about the brain itself and how it is wired to try to make sense of our external world.  It will even hallucinate to try to fill in the missing pieces.  I was also amazed at the wide variety of hallucinations that people experience, and at just how commonplace they really are.  My only complaint with the book is that I found myself drifting off fairly often, not paying attention closely as I listened to it.  Don't get me wrong, I think that Sacks is a good writer, but it didn't all hold my attention.  In particular the parts that were about more severe psychological illnesses didn't interest me as much.  But overall it was quite interesting, and if you've got an interest in psychology you should check it out.
Disclaimer: None.