Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness

Bursting with insight and drawing from multiple disciplines, this book collects humanity's best guesses of how our brain works.

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"Stylish, witty and insightful" -The Wall Street Journal

"Makes us look at ourselves and the human mind in a series of fascinating ways" - New Scientist

"House is a pleasure to read. Like Oliver Sacks ..." - Los Angeles Review of Books

A concise, elegant, and thought-provoking exploration of the mystery of consciousness and the functioning of the brain.

Despite decades of research, remarkable imagery, and insights from a range of scientific and medical disciplines, the human brain remains largely unexplored. Consciousness has eluded explanation.

Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness offers a brilliant overview of the state of modern consciousness research in twenty brief, revealing chapters. Neuroscientist and author Patrick House describes complex concepts in accessible terms, weaving brain science, technology, gaming, analogy, and philosophy into a tapestry that illuminates how the brain works and what enables consciousness. This remarkable book fosters a sense of mystery and wonder about the strangeness of the relationship between our inner selves and our environment.

"In addition to being an intellectual pleasure, this is an aesthetic one as well - House writes like a dream, with great drollness and elegance of phrase. This book is a gem." - Robert Sapolsky, MacArthur Fellowship winner and author of Behave


"A highly unusual but brilliant book ... with a distinct voice that is fiercely unique." - Christof Koch, president and chief scientist, Allen Institute for Brain Science