This Is Your Brain On Music is 1/3 music theory, 1/3 neurobiology, and 1/3 rocumentary. I enjoyed it, but can only give it 3 stars because of how thin the content was. There's a lot of fluff, which would annoy those of you on a schedule. On the plus side, the fluff makes most of the book an easy read.

This book presents itself as an analysis of how our brains process music. It does deliver, but only for 50 of the 300 pages. A lot of the book is meandering narrative about the author's former music career, or his new entry into a neurobiology career. He's not as interesting as he thinks he is.

The book contained a lot of compelling data, and I'm glad I read it. But I totally understand why some Amazonians gave it one single star.

The book does ramble a lot... it talks enough about music theory to whet your appetite for more, but then the author blabbed on about Joni Mitchell for a dozen pages. Then it discussed evolutionary neurobiology, with a long pit stop to learn about Paula Abdul and the Rolling Stones.

There's about 30-40 pages of really excellent information for those who know something about neurobiology or music theory. If you like rocumentaries, or can read fast, you'll love the book... otherwise you may find it a bit tedious.