Book 9: Born on a Blue Day

TITLE: Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
AUTHOR: Daniel Tammet
STARTED: March 3, 2009
FINISHED: March 5, 2009
PAGES: 226
GENRE: Memoir

FIRST SENTENCE: I was born on January 31, 1979 - a Wednesday.

SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Born on a Blue Day is a journey into one of the most fascinating minds alive today -- guided by its owner himself. Daniel Tammet sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and he can perform extraordinary calculations in his head. He can learn to speak new languages fluently, from scratch, in a week. In 2004, he memorized and recited more than 22,000 digits of pi, setting a record. He has savant syndrome, an extremely rare condition that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like those portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man.

Daniel has a compulsive need for order and routine -- he eats the same precise amount of cereal for breakfast every morning and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he's wearing. When he gets stressed or is unhappy, he closes his eyes and counts. But in one crucial way Daniel is not at all like the Rain Man: he is virtually unique among people who have severe autistic disorders in that he is capable of living a fully independent life. He has emerged from the "other side" of autism with the ability to function successfully -- he is even able to explain what is happening inside his head.

Born on a Blue Day is a triumphant and uplifting story, starting from early childhood, when Daniel was incapable of making friends and prone to tantrums, to young adulthood, when he learned how to control himself and to live independently, fell in love, experienced a religious conversion to Christianity, and most recently, emerged as a celebrity. The world's leading neuroscientists have been studying Daniel's ability to solve complicated math problems in one fell swoop by seeing shapes rather than making step-by-step calculations. Here he explains how he does it, and how he is able to learn new languages so quickly, simply by absorbing their patterns. Fascinating and inspiring, Born on a Blue Day explores what it's like to be special and gives us an insight into what makes us all human -- our minds.

THOUGHTS: Is it the book I admire or the subject? It's hard to tell. I read Born on a Blue Day for my book club. We discussed the text last night and I still come away with very little to talk about. I greatly enjoyed the book and found the story of Tammet's life fascinating. The writing style was very introspective and it moved quickly. I found myself in awe of Tammet and how he was able to use his Asperger's and savant syndrome in beneficial ways. I also liked hearing of the massive support of those around him, particularly from his parents.

It's hard to critique this book because it feels like I would be critiquing the author, a man who I have come to admire.

I would have liked the first, completely unedited first draft of this book. I think it would be interesting.

RATING: 8/10 [Terrific]