Just Couldn’t Finished Reading: This is Your Brain on Music – Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2006) [267pp] 

This was quite the disappointment. I’m not 100% sure just how long this had been languishing in one of my book piles but I was looking forward to finally reading it. Things did not start well as the author spent multiple pages defining various musical terms – melody, tempo, pitch etc. - to the point where I was lost or unsure about what anything meant. I think it would have been much better to sprinkle the explanations throughout the text, even if he had to repeat himself from time to time. What was sprinkled through the first part of the book was some interesting observations and speculations but, I found, too few and too widely spaced. 

Once we moved out of musical definitions and explanations things did improve but then, I think, we hit another issue – the age of the book. At 18 years old, despite the advances made in the understanding of the human brain in the preceding years, it was really showing its age. Although the author didn’t say so specifically it did seem that the fMRI scanner used in some of the work cited was still fairly new technology. On top of that many of the ideas used were at least somewhat speculative. I couldn’t help but wonder what, in the following 18 years of investigation, had been proven to be correct – or wrong. 

Listening to music has always been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. First on the radio (and TV) and later on records, cassettes and ultimately CDs. One of the things that has long intrigued me is why I like certain music but not others. I’m sure part of that it just what I grew up hearing, which is understandable. I also imagine that at least some of the reason why I like certain types of music is an accident of how my brain is wired. The author certainly hints at this ‘answer’ to my question but what I would love to know is why my brain LOVED a piece of classical music the moment it heard it for the first time. What’s all THAT about? Is it the melody, the tempo, the pitch? It's a good question. Maybe a more modern book might be able to answer it? I did give it a good ‘go’ – 147pages if memory serves – but it just wasn’t for me.  

[Oh, and only my 2nd review of the year and already my 1st DNF. I do hope that’s not a sign for what’s coming this year....!]