Warning: This book could change your life!

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	• A Natural History of the Senses Diane Ackerman Vintage, 1991 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 60 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Such a good writer

After reading "The Zookeepers Wife" I wanted to read more Diane Ackerman. She's such a great combination of scientist and poet - presenting fascinating facts in an engaging manner. Her writing informs and entertains and inspires me to write. Go Diane!

Fascinating book

I really enjoyed this book. It is full of interesting information about the five senses. I gave it only 4 out of 5 stars though because I thought the chapters on hearing and vision got a little off the topic at times.

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Delightful digressions

A collection of delightful and digressive essays about smelling, tasting, touching, hearing and seeing. It's meant for entertainment rather than solid instruction. (Read my "Psychiatry of Stroke" to get the anatomy and physiology). Ackerman covers some of the science but there are no illustrations, tables or references (except for a list of books for further reading at the end) and it leans to the humanities rather than technology. My copy has a 1990 publication date and I don't know if it's been revised. There's nothing about the discoveries concerning the sense of smell that brought Linda Buck and Richard Axel the 2004 Nobel Prize.
The prose style is something you might love or hate, with many complex sentences and unusual words and much display of erudition. Some of the insights were brilliant and original but I would agree with the reviewer who found some of them to be platitudes.

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The Human Experience

A Natural History of the Senses is a wild romp through smell, taste, hearing, touch and sight. It is also a guided tour of how humans experience the world. At times the writing has a rare beauty to the point of being poetic while at other times it is exotic, intimate and revealing.

Each chapter reveals the intricacies of the topic at hand except the last two chapters seem slightly off focus. At times Diane Ackerman deviates wildly from her chosen topic and then gets back on track. For example, while discussing vision she ends up talking about weather patterns.

Through this book you may discover how kissing originated or why tea is harmful without milk. Why do woman crave pickles during pregnancy? What motivates people to watch horror movies?

Diane Ackerman is well traveled and has a inquisitive mind. I enjoyed reading new information about chocolate, vanilla and truffles. If you like to keep yourself fortified with useful information then this book is destined to please.

~The Rebecca Review

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Warning: This book could change your life!

Ackerman brilliantly weaves science, history, anthropology, and personal anecdotes in this incredible book. After reading it, I've become more conscious of everything around me-smells, tastes, textures, sights, sounds. The chapter on smell is especially powerful.
If you are a fan of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, then you will love this book as well.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. "Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in."--The New York Times. (Literature--Classics & Contemporary)

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