GET LIT: Win a copy of Oliver Sacks' The Mind's Eye

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

0 comments

GET LIT: Win a copy of Oliver Sacks' The Mind's Eye

POSTED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 7:00 PM

Knopf, 288 pp., $26.95, Oct. 26

Remember last month's Book Quarterly? It wasn't so long ago that we reviewed Columbia University professor of neurology and psychiatry Oliver Sacks' The Mind's Eye, about folks who go through life without sight, speech or literacy. Tonight, Sacks will give a talk at the Free Library's Central Branch (7:30 p.m., $15, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org), and in honor of the event we're giving away a copy of his new book. Here's what CP staff writer Holly Otterbein had to say about it back in October:

If the universe snatches a sense from you, it must mean it's stolen one-fifth of your personhood along with it. But in The Mind's Eye, triple-threat neurologist/artist/writer Oliver Sacks assures the young and healthy (for now) that this isn't so. ... Studies show that the auditory parts of the brain in deaf people (or visual parts in the blind) don't atrophy, but instead take on new duties, like a laborer studying IT after his factory is shuttered. ... This spin on aphasia, facial blindness and other inconceivably weird deficiencies is a warm bath for anyone who's currently caring for Bubbe, but Sacks is so committed to a motivational narrative that he doesn't convey the bottomless dread the newly handicapped must feel.

To win a copy, answer the following trivia question:

What 17th-century English poet is said to have composed his best work after losing his eyesight?

E-mail me at carolyn.huckabay@citypaper.net for a chance to win!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 7:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

0 comments

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: