Gavin Francis is a physician and a writer. His books include Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum.One of Francis's top ten books on illness, as shared at the Guardian:
Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985)Read about another entry on the list.
I first encountered this book in 1997, having recently graduated with a degree in neuroscience; I promptly wrote to Sacks in New York to ask if I could join him in clinic. His gracious rebuttal cited pressures on histime, and regretted the decline in his clinical and teaching work (he was by then 64). “Hat”, as he called it, inspired a whole genre of philosophically reflective medical writing, nourished by art and literature.
The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat is among Tanya Byron's six best books, Gabriel Weston's five top books about the body, and Lisa Genova's six favorite books about science & literature.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
