Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet
Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant was born on January 31, 1979 (just 29 days after myself) which happened to be a Wednesday. And Wednesday’s are always blue. In fact, to Daniel, every number and letter manifests a different color and feel. This ability is called synaesthesia, a condition which I was unaware of.
But this is not the only limit of Daniel’s abilities. He has savant syndrome, which many of us are aware of through Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Charlie Babbitt in the movie Rain Man. Not only can Daniel Tammet calculate huge sums of numbers in his head but he also can recite the number of Pi up to 22,500 decimal places, and learn languages in mere weeks (he’s fluent in about nine). Daniel Tammet also has Asperger’s, a very high functioning form of autism which unlike Charlie Babbit, allows him to communicate and interact well. This was a skill that he learned to improve with time and practice. It’s this capability that he’s able to give us a glimpse into one of the most rare conditions in the world.
This memoir is a fascinating glimpse into such an extraordinary mind. Our brains are incredible and Daniel has opened himself up to science for study so we may better understand what we, as humans, are capable of. Daniel takes us on a journey through his childhood, his home, family and school life, to embarking out on his own, finding love and creating his own successful business. While the book is certainly factual in nature, a testament to how Daniel processes his surroundings, it was incredibly introspective and honest. I love coming to learn and understand people who are unlike myself, and if you are the same, this is a memoir that you won’t want to miss.
The following video is a 50 minute film, titled The Boy With The Incredible Brain, which is a documentary that he talks about in length in the book. If you don’t read the book, I’d at least watch the film. But I’d recommend both!
Links of interest: Daniel Tammet’s website, more book blogger reviews. Did you know April is National Autism Awareness Month? Check out all my book reviews that address autism.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Publisher: Free Press. October 16, 2007
Paperback, 256 pages. ISBN 1416549013
Source copy: Own
Born on a Blue Day is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
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Tags: A-D Title, autism, Non-Fiction, published 2007, Publisher: Free Press, Q-T Author
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I didn’t realize how young you are!
I’d heard of this book before. It sounded interesting, but I wasn’t sure it would make good reading. Sounds like it does!
Do you think there’s enough here for a book club discussion, or should I stick to reading it on my own?
on April 27th, 2010 at 11:33 amSounds fascinating – will have to check it out.
on April 27th, 2010 at 12:20 pmI listened to about half of this book on audio. It wasn’t very exciting, so it didn’t really hold my interest, but I think that his story is fascinating. I’ll have to check out the documentary.
on April 27th, 2010 at 12:52 pmWow, what an incredible man and story. I’ve added this to my list of books that I must read. There is so much that we don’t understand about our capacity to learn.
on April 27th, 2010 at 2:10 pmI have the same sort of synaesthesia as Tammet, so this was a really fun read for me. On the other hand, I do NOT have any sort of autism or savant syndrome. I just see numbers/letters/words/music/etc in color.
on April 27th, 2010 at 4:34 pmi hadn’t heard of this before, so thank you for sharing. my brother is autistic and i have enjoyed several of the other books i’ve read on the subject. definitely adding this one to my wishlist!
on April 27th, 2010 at 5:41 pmi remember watching something about this on tv–maybe a dateline type of show? it’s unbelievable that the human brain can have such deficits and yet be so strong in other areas.
books like this interest me–i’m off to watch the vid.
on April 27th, 2010 at 8:21 pmThis book sounds amazing! I would love to read it from the viewpoint of some one who has Asperger’s. Nice review!
on May 1st, 2010 at 10:45 am