Jesus Blanco
7/18/14
Summer Reading Entry 1

Summer Reading Entry 1
Over the summer, I have read many different books. But the book that I felt passionate writing about is called “My Stroke of Insight,” written by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. This book I feel like is very descriptive and very personal to Ms. Taylor; that way she, as well, is very passionate about her work and what she goes through.

This book is mostly about what has happened to Ms. Taylor, which makes very personal. On December 10, 1996, Ms. Taylor experienced a rare form of a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. She had a hemorrhage deep inside her brain. Ms. Taylor woke up to the feeling of a sharp pain piercing her brain directly behind her left eye. Afterward she lost orientation in her body that when she went to take a bath she had to hold the wall to keep her from falling. Eventually, she ended up going to the hospital and they doctors explain what has happened.
Ms. Taylor being a neuroanatomist, personally believed that the stroke she has experience was the best thing to happen to her. It has showed her the feeling of Nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. Which makes this an experience that every scientist wishes that they will and will not go through. Being a neuroanatomist, Ms. Taylor's eye were opened of how it feels to go through this kind of possibility: how the blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain, how she observed her own brain completely deteriorate to the point that she couldn't walk, talk, read, write, or remember any other events in her life. Just going through all that pain and all the recovery time is painful enough... But now knowing what has happened to you exactly from the start is even more terrifying.
Ms. Taylor wrote this for anyone with a brain injury or has had one, but for me I read it for pleasure. As a result of Ms. Taylor writing this for victims of brain injuries, she included many details of the brain that helped me better understand. For example, “People who have