The Hippocampus book

I can never see the point of book reviews that don't tell you

1. whether the book is worth reading/buying
   
2. anything about what the book contains
   

Luckily the latest oeuvre* from Tim Bliss (late of NIMR's Division of Neurophysiology) has been well-served with two glowing reviews, one today in Science and another in May's Nature Neuroscience.

The review in Science said:

"...with a gestation period of 20 years, written by a team of 23 researchers, styled by 5 editors, weighing nearly 6 pounds, and running over 850 pages [the book] summarizes 50 years of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral research on the sea horse-shaped structure buried deep within the brain's medial temporal lobe. It is, however, much more than a reference work. The book also captures the lore of the field and will serve as a reliable guide for the next generation of hippocampologists."

The reviewer goes on to describe the various chapters, in enthusiastic tones. He ends:

The hippocampus has served as a Rosetta stone, and deciphering its secrets is helping us to understand many core principles of brain function. The Hippocampus Book records the impressive results of our decoding to date and passes the torch to the next generation.

The Nature Neuroscience review was rather more poetic and less enumerative, but leaves us in no doubt about his view of the worth of the book:

"this most magnificent compilation ever written about the the hippocampus in the brain ... serves as a precise guide to hippocampal discoveries, and hence we can forget about PubMed: here we have almost all of the important information about the hippocampus, in context".

Although I can't imagine ever "forgetting about PubMed" I see what he means.

He closes his review thus:

The elusive sea dragon of the brain is guarding its secrets tightly, leaving future researchers plenty to study and discover.

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* The book in question is:
The Hippocampus Book
Edited by Per Andersen, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Tim Bliss and John O'Keefe
Oxford University Press, 2006
872 pp, hardcover , $125.00
ISBN 0195100271

We do have a copy in the Library if you want to read it for yourself.