... not just for those who are aging and contemplating hearing loss. It is the best primer I’ve ever read on sound and hearing, and full of advice for people of any age to consider if they want to preserve their ability to listen to music, carry on conversations in restaurants, be capable of accurately detecting sarcasm, or listen to the presidential debates (who’d want to lose that ability?) ... I wish this book could have been read by the five or six professors I had as a student, who tried and failed to explain how hearing actually works. Mr. Owen is gifted with analogies ... Mr. Owen also gives us a wonderful insight into the world of the hard of hearing and deaf.
Owen enumerates the things that inconvenience people about conventional hearing aids (besides their high price), and rounds out the topic by evaluating high-tech substitutes that work through smartphone apps ... This well-researched and accessible introduction to the complicated subject of hearing loss is highly recommended for all science readers, not just those experiencing hearing impairments.
Owen dutifully metes out the basics about the auditory system, but it's Volume Control's human-interest angle that enthralls ... Owen offers a heartbreaking riff on how military men and women, whose ears have always taken a beating, are even today given the message from higher-ups that wearing ear protection and complaining of hearing loss are signs of weakness ... Although Volume Control is inevitably cautionary, the book is not a scold. That's because Owen's curiosity rather than an agenda powers Volume Control.
... unusually informative and entertaining ... In clear, appealing prose, Owen explains how loud sounds—machinery, live music, etc.—can leave people no longer noticing smoke alarms, sirens, gunshots, and backup signals ... [Owen] makes earwax interesting, explores sudden and single-sided deafness, and identifies the restaurants that are quietest (Chinese, Indian, and Japanese) and loudest (Mexican) in New York City. The book brims with useful advice ... A bright, upbeat, sometimes funny dive into a serious subject that will spur many readers to get their ears tested.
... informative ... Readers may object that topics such as the stigma of deafness and the deaf community don’t receive much attention. Otherwise, in exploring a bodily mechanism 'so remarkably small and complex and hard to observe that scientists still don’t completely understand how all of its components work,' Owen delivers an illuminating account of human hearing.
