The Man Who Tasted Words

A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses

By: Dr. Guy Leschziner

Narrated by: Dr. Guy Leschziner

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

In The Man Who Tasted Words, Guy Leschziner leads listeners through the five senses and how, through them, our brain understands or misunderstands the world around us.

Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning - the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance - is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control.

In The Man Who Tasted Words, Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces listeners to extraordinary individuals he’s worked with in his practice, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well. The cases Leschziner shares in The Man Who Tasted Words are extreme, but they are also human and teach us how our lives and what we perceive as reality are both ultimately defined by the complexities of our nervous systems.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2022 Dr. Guy Leschziner (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Multi-level and Informative

This book is a fascinating journey through the extreme problems that can happen when our 5 senses go haywire. The author picks some extreme examples to show what life is like for people whose senses fail them. He then takes it to another more clinical level to explain the science behind the failure. The book was interesting because it exposed me to sense problems I hadn't imagined people suffered from and gave a detailed explanation of why they likely occur. From a broader perspective it helped me realize how limited our senses truly are even when they're working and how different life could be when they don't.

The narration was well done. The voice was easy to listen to.

This was a fascinating book to read and listen to..

I read this book and listened to it on Audible because I needed to hear it first.. but if I had actually paid better attention to seeing the glossary at the back of the book first and using it…

..it would have been much easier to follow the medical info. that I was not at all familiar with..
And ..may I say, that reading chapter 9 and the Epilogue at some point before finishing…was very helpful to actually figure out where the book was going with all of these fascinating and interesting stories.

I am so impressed with the depth of thought and knowledge that the author offers us to consider and apply as we try to navigate our own very unique and different perceptions and perspectives in our own lives as we better understand how our senses, brain, and nervous system work interdependently with each other as we interpret our world.. fascinating..