Science Book, Take a Look: Going Nuts?

This book is not about psychology, but its somewhat more scientific counterpart: Neurology, or the science of the brain. There are many, many strange tales of patients with diseases of the brain...

Newton's Madness: Further Tales of Clinical Neurology

by Harold L. Klawans, M.D.

I found this a really engaging read. They're basically the stories of patients (well, most) that the author encountered as a neurologist who works in a hospital and diagnoses people. Some of the diseases many people know about, like a stroke, while others aren't so common. He explains how he does things pretty clearly (hey, this isn't for doctors but everyday folk like you and me) although all the chemicals like dopamine and serotonin and other big fancy medical terms (with the exception of morbidly obese, which I think most people know) can make your head spin if you try to keep track of them all (which I didn't). My favorite chapter in the book was chapter 18, "The Girl with the Dancing Eyes," which was simply hilarious- or at least the first half was. I won't tell anything about this chapter except this tidbit: bouncing guinea pigs. An example of the type of diseases, or rather, problems with the brain (by far not the most exotic, though) that the author discusses was a stroke, in the first chapter. While a stroke is pretty basic knowledge, the stroke that the author has to diagnose belongs to none other but one of his mother's very close friends- "Aunt Betty." In this case, the stroke patient was taken to the hospital, but the patient had no idea what was wrong! Aunt Betty had lost all control and feeling in her left arm or hand- in fact, when the author held it up for her to see, she thought it was the neurologist's hand, not her own. The author later goes on to explain this more thoroughly.

Here are some tips if you do read this book:
First, read all the quotes that the chapter starts out with. You probably should for all books, but these are really interesting (same goes for the Michio Kaku books, he has some awesome quotes in there).
Second, read all the author's notes at the end of the chapter. There are hidden goodies in there that are definately worth reading, especially in Chapter 18.
Third, and this goes for most of the books I would put up, this is not a quick read. It is a book written for adults, and while it's not super long, it definately needs you to take your time and read it. If you need a book for Lit, don't read this just for the 10 points- or rather, read a fantasy book for the 10 points and read this for the sake of reading (which you should be doing in the first place).
Fourth, I have a question that I would be very grateful if someone could answer: this book has an entire chapter devoted to Sherlock Holmes, his possible drug addiction, and how he probably visited Dr. Sigmund Freud during the three years that he "disappeared." So, considering that Sigmund Freud existed and real people don't really get visits from fictional characters all that often, was Sherlock Holmes real? Kokopelli1015 said that Sherlock Holmes didn't, but that makes everything make less sense. Not that I don't believe Kokopelli1015, but if you happen to read the book or just know about Sherlock Holmes, feel free to share your opinion on this topic (or anything in the book).