I thought this would be a heavy read, to be tackled in small bites, but I was ultimately quite drawn in and charged through at the end. The body lays out the evidence for the things most likely to improve quality and length of life. The final chapter is worth rereading to fix those things in the mind and hopefully to motivate and set course adjustments. ( )

Anecdote after anecdote, little substance, and (it seemed to me) confusion of some concepts ( )

A lot of good information, and Levitin is a good writer. But I think I’ve read most of the neuroscience stuff in other pop-neurosci books, and almost all of the old-age advice seemed pretty familiar also, like from NYT articles. Not Levitin’s fault if I read this kind of stuff a lot I guess. I really liked his book about music, none of his other books have matched that for me. ( )

Daniel Levitin has put together a lot of good information and thoughts for anyone who is planning on becoming or is already old. He has an interest in music as well as being a neuroscientist and cognitive psychologist. He has practical considerations regarding diet, exercise, and sleep. He provides an analysis of potential cognitive enhancement drugs and supplements. His comments on preparation for death are logical. In the beginning section he covers many of the body systems and functions that deteriorate with increasing age. I consider his advice on social interactions and continuing to have purposeful work as important. ( )

Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music, The Organized Mind) tackles how to age gracefully: physically, mentally, and socially. The content was all right, but it felt really long and occasionally repetitive. The brain and music bits were stronger than the physical and social bits; the physical bits were OK but not as impassioned as the brain bits felt, and the social bits felt simplistic.
The level of language sometimes swung from high-level scientist to almost middle school level (I always feel like pronunciation guides are for a *really* general audience).

The edition of this book that I read was 528 pages. About 75 to 100 of that was notes and an index. So it is thoroughly endnoted, and that is definitely a good thing. I also liked that Levitin focused on meta-analyses when describing the most positive interventions and explained why rubbish studies are rubbish. But at the same time, this book felt REALLY long. I also had to wonder what the audience was. It’s a good book, but I feel like it’s more likely to be taken to heart by people who are already fairly well off. How can we help people who have already been disadvantaged (whether through childhood trauma, parental neglect, abuse, lack of education, or other circumstances) and enable them to overcome those circumstances? I’m not sure this book intended to answer that question, but perhaps it should have.

I’m still planning to check out Levitin’s mind-based books, because those parts of this book were strong, but I wouldn’t start out with this one. ( )