Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

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Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

by Daniel Tammet (Goodreads Author)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 9,155 ratings · 1,357 reviews

Born on a Blue Day is a journey into one of the most fascinating minds alive todayguided by the owner himself. Daniel Tammet is virtually unique among people who have severe autistic disorders in that he is capable of living a fully independent life and able to explain what is happening inside his head.

He sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and he can perform ex...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published October 16th 2007 by Free Press (first published 2006)

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Jan 30, 2008 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. With a full title (in the States) of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, Daniel Tammet's memoir might seem intimidating. Yet the text itself is anything but--the chapters are relatively short, his sentences are easy to follow, and (aside from the first chapter, "Blue Nines and Red Words") it is told in straightforward chronology.

Tammet is 28 years old; he's been diagnosed as both a savant and autistic, which means that he can remember nearly everything he's r...more With a full title (in the States) of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, Daniel Tammet's memoir might seem intimidating. Yet the text itself is anything but--the chapters are relatively short, his sentences are easy to follow, and (aside from the first chapter, "Blue Nines and Red Words") it is told in straightforward chronology.

Tammet is 28 years old; he's been diagnosed as both a savant and autistic, which means that he can remember nearly everything he's read, including massive amounts of numbers, but that he spent most of his life feeling like an outsider unsure of how to interact with other people. I first learned of the memoir both through a book review somewhere else and a special on TV about him--in which, among other things, he learned to speak Icelandic fluently in one week. He sees words and numbers as colors and textures, with different characters having different sizes and shapes.

I would love to say that it is a brilliant memoir, but to be honest, there were few points where it lived up to the dust jacket's "triumphant and uplifting" description. True, he has been incredibly successful in spite of his autism-related limitations (he runs a successful online language learning business, and is considered one of the most socially functional autistic cases ever studied--as a result, he's a scientist's wet dream to studying the brain, savantism, and autism).

While the text is quite informative into how his mind works and what his life has been like, there were large chunks where I felt disconnected from the text. This sense of distance was a result of two elements. First, in the entire book--though most noticeably in the first few chapters--it seems like Tammet and his editors just can't seem to decide what exactly they want this memoir to do. Tammet swings from describing how he sees the world (fairly passionately and intricately) to listing off events of his childhood, to offering somewhat stilted advice to those with autism and their friends and family. Since the advice frequently takes the form of a paragraph awkwardly tacked on at the end of a chapter, I felt like it wasn't really organically grown from the text.

Secondly, in many cases, Tammet is simply listing and recounting events. The most engaging passages are where he discusses how he sees certain letters and words, how he learned Icelandic, how he memorized over 22,500 numbers of pi for a public recital, the ins and outs of his relationship, and when he meets Kim Peek (on whom Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man is based). In short, when he's writing about things that matter to him, it's an incredibly engaging memoir. But so much of his recounting has the air of something he's telling us because he expects it's what we're interested in--and that he'd kind of bored by it. As a result, the rest of the memoir is consumed by an almost list-like, fairly dispassionate chronology of his experiences in grade school, secondary school, teaching abroad, etc.

In some ways, this second "problem" seems a result of the first: the focus of the text seems torn. The shorter early chapters seem to exacerbate the problem by skipping rather quickly through things--many of them things Tammet does not remember but his parents do, which could account for his lack of energy when discussing them.

His is a fascinating mind and experience, and the book is definitely worth reading if you're interested in how the brain works, how autism or savantism work, and particularly how Tammet sees numbers, letters, etc. (he includes illustrations of what some letters and numbers look like to him, which are cool). It does provide a lot of insight into how someone with Asperger's syndrome (considered a milder, more social form of autism) functions and thinks. (The UK title, Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind, actually seems more representative of the text itself.) Otherwise, this is one story where the condensed version of the TV special might actually be preferable, as the stilted style in portions of this text rob it of its due.(less)

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Feb 06, 2008 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

Daniel Tammet first became known to the world for such feats as setting the world record for memorizing the most digits of PI (22,514) and learning to speak Icelandic in a week. Tammet is a high-functioning autistic savant who also has synesthesia, a neurological mixing of the senses that allows him to see numbers in shapes and colors.

Tammet's autobiography provides a fascinating glimpse into the inner world of a man who experiences life very differently from the rest of us. As he discusses gro...more

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Sep 02, 2009 Modern Hermeneut rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author of this autobiography is a gay, Christian, epileptic, synesthete with a photographic memory. Unfortunately, he also has Asperger's, so instead of serving up a boldly self-satirizing confessional, he subjects us to a robotic catalogue of chronologically ordered facts about his life, wholly devoid of emotional connection, thematic unity, narrative tension, and moral value. There is virtually nothing here that would interest a non-autistic person.

To give you an idea of what I mean, consi...more The author of this autobiography is a gay, Christian, epileptic, synesthete with a photographic memory. Unfortunately, he also has Asperger's, so instead of serving up a boldly self-satirizing confessional, he subjects us to a robotic catalogue of chronologically ordered facts about his life, wholly devoid of emotional connection, thematic unity, narrative tension, and moral value. There is virtually nothing here that would interest a non-autistic person.

To give you an idea of what I mean, consider that Tammet devotes three full pages to describing (proudly, and in excruciating detail) his unique permutation on the card game Solitaire; and yet he is happy to squeeze into a single, short paragraph the stories of how he and his boyfriend first met one another's respective parents.

Tammet's profound social and emotional deficits are matched only by the embarrassing artlessness of his prose. I can say, without exaggeration, that I have never read a more stilted and unsophisticated published work in my entire life. The fact that this volume ever saw the light of day -- and the fact that it apparently hoodwinked some professional critics (all of whom should be ashamed of themselves) -- is a testament to the current craze for neurological novelty of the cheapest variety.

Like Kim Meek (the real-life inspiration for "Rain Man"), who also makes an appearance in the book, Daniel Tammet's "abilities" are notable only for their grotesque other-ness and not for their practical utility or moral virtue. He is nothing more than a freakshow, who has benefited from a diseased strain of Western liberalism that embraces "differentness" even at the expense of normative values like empathy, humility, and humor.

If you think I'm going too far, I invite you to read page 82 on which the author recounts how he hit a little girl (one of the precious few people in the book whose name he fails to remember) with no good reason and without a hint of remorse. One has the impression that Tammet's life is littered with such victims of his pathology, even as his relatives and teachers bend over backwards to accommodate him.(less)

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Nov 25, 2008 Sun rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookaweek2008

The problem with autobiography is that extraordinary people are not necessary good writers. Daniel Tammet has an extraordinary mind - he can visualise numbers, recite pi to record-breaking decimal places and learn languages with astounding ease*. This is linked to his Asperger's and also to epilepsy.

Although a novel human story, this does not provide much insight into how Tammet's brain works and why other brains are not like his. I expected his unique cognition would be illuminated through pre...more

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Nov 22, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've seen publicity of this book and have wanted to read it. I found a copy at the Orem library and checked it out, just in time to read the whole thing during a flight from SLC to New Orleans. It's a very interesting personal account of a man living in England who has both Savant Syndrome and Asperger's. He has a stunningly brilliant mind for numbers - he visualizes them as shapes and colors - and can perform incredibly complex mathematical tasks in his mind in seconds by merging the shapes. He...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Mom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book a lot, it is so well written, it is a compliment to the author. What a gifted person, his ability to write and the accomplishments he has made in his life are amazing. His interest and ability with languages encourages one to want to learn other languages and his explanations of language and how it can be learned lead you to believe that you can. This book causes you to examine yourself and ponder the possibility of where you might fall on "the spectrum"! Someone once told me t...more

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Dec 07, 2008 Uen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Uen by: library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Before I read this book I had known nothing about Daniel Tammet. But now, I'm positively obsessed with learning every little detail about his life.

When I began the book, I was excited because the intro on the inside cover of the book seemed interesting. I mean who wouldn't wan tot read about an autistic genius? But the first chapter of the book, I have to admit, was a little dry becuase he was trying to introduce you to his mind and how he percieved numbers as shapes. Not until the 2nd or 3rd c...more Before I read this book I had known nothing about Daniel Tammet. But now, I'm positively obsessed with learning every little detail about his life.

When I began the book, I was excited because the intro on the inside cover of the book seemed interesting. I mean who wouldn't wan tot read about an autistic genius? But the first chapter of the book, I have to admit, was a little dry becuase he was trying to introduce you to his mind and how he percieved numbers as shapes. Not until the 2nd or 3rd chapter did I start to get really absorbed into understand the quirks he grew up with including collecting acorns and how he really didn't care that he was different from other children. What really astounded me about his childhood days was how great his parents were and how much they cared about him even with their SEVEN other younger children. I really have to applaud the wonderfull patience and understanding they had with him that make them truly exceptional parents.

But on with Daniel's life. Chapters, I think, 5 thru 6 were narrating Daniel's gradual independence. I feel that I also have to applaud Daniel for being able to go out by his own without a significant push from others to get him started. He simply decided to get out of the house and applied to be sent to Lithuania to help people there learn English. Judging from his social awkwardness at times, I think Daniel got situated very quickly and learned all by himself how to interact with others. What really made him comfortable with talking was probably when he taught himself the language extremely quickly. Daniel also made a great decision when he got with a group gay guys and got comfortable with them.

After Lithuania Daniel went home and eventually met Neil online. That was what spurred Daniel to come out to his parents that he's gay and they understood and wanted only the best for him. Then began Neil and Daniel's life together.

The rest of the book is basically talking about Daniel's experience filming Brainman which included reciting pi to 22,500 digits and learnign icelandic in a week. All I'd like to say about this part is that it was really interesting knowing how the filming of the movie went for Daniel. I would strongly encourage anyone to see but reading about the experience makes it all the better.

I learned a lot from reading this book. I learned about a savant that I'd never heard of before as well as how autism works. I was really amazing to understand how he thinks and even now I haven't finished marveling all that he has done and what scientists think of him. I just want to say how cool it is that he can do what he can do and how he's been able to learn past all his social awkwardness and progressed so far.

(less)

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Sep 28, 2011 Velvetink rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, medical, psychology, non-fiction, science, 2011-read

Daniel Tammet is a savant who sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and who can perform unbelievable feats of calculation in his head. In 2004 he became something of a celebrity in England when he memorized and recited the first 22,000 digits of pi, setting a new world record.

The cover is a bit misleading with the tagline, "inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant". The author is not, in fact, autistic, and never was. He suffered from epilepsy & seizures during early child...more Daniel Tammet is a savant who sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and who can perform unbelievable feats of calculation in his head. In 2004 he became something of a celebrity in England when he memorized and recited the first 22,000 digits of pi, setting a new world record.

The cover is a bit misleading with the tagline, "inside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant". The author is not, in fact, autistic, and never was. He suffered from epilepsy & seizures during early childhood which doctors and scientists believe caused his savantism. This becomes immediately clear upon reading the first pages of the book. He does have Asperger's syndrome, but although Asperger's is considered to be loosely related to autism (or more accurately on the spectrum), it is certainly not the same. It is a much milder disorder, much less debilitating, and much more common. It is fairly common for someone with Asperger's to lead a more or less normal life and fairly common for many to go undiagnosed until much later in life…. Several major Silicon Valley CEOs have been diagnosed with it & many more well known people of note have been retroactively diagnosed as having it. There was an article on Wired a while back entitled “The Geek Syndrome”, which seems to cover Asperger's pretty well, at a layman's level, so I'm not going to detail it further here. Long story short, I consider this tagline disingenuous on the part of the publisher.

I found this book rather interesting. It is well-written and engaging, and the main character (the author himself) is interesting to get to know.

But I began to worry that the entire book would be a loose collection of examples of synesthesia. For an example, Tammet sees the number “1″ as a very bright white, the number “11″ is friendly, and “5″ is loud like a clap of thunder. Scientists are particularly interested in his ability to see numbers as landscapes with color and texture and Tammet is currently helping them with their studies. I wonder at the outcome of this as no two people think alike and worry that his way of seeing numbers etc will be interpreted as some kind of bible within the scientific community. Tammet’s input is important but like statistics he is only one not the majority.

While there is the assumption that synaesthesia is rare I don’t believe it is “that” rare and believe that many people have some degree of it in various ways. I myself see words in images or moods as I read them and I know many others that do – and many folk who do gravitate towards the arts in some form. Ditto many musicians report seeing music in ways that the rest of us don’t experience. I have to admit I can’t do much maths these days without anti-depressants (& I’d rather not take them) - I now have a mental block for it ~ although in primary school I was pretty good & developed my own math system based on what I now know to be a binary system, until the nun’s beat it out of me,(hence the mental block)…. Anyhow that’s probably TMI - but relevant to me, so when I came to Tammet’s chapter on pi and more detailed maths I just skipped it. Maths geeks though will love it – I guess to give him his due what he can do is nothing short of amazing and his ability is compared to the ‘Rainman”, Kim Peek, who Tammet later met & continues to remain friends with.

The subsequent chapters begin a more chronological journey through the author's life. Tammet had a very difficult education. He was bullied by his classmates because of his “weirdness” and compulsive behaviour. He was socially withdrawn and preferred his own company. His parents were accepting and supporting of him and he credits their help with getting him through difficult periods.

Tammet gives this advice to parents of children suffering from epilepsy or autism:
“Give your children the self-belief to hold on to their dreams, because they are the things that shape each person’s future”. (Something all parents should try to do).

Tammet is creating his own language, strongly influenced by the vowel and image-rich languages of northern Europe. (He already speaks French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Icelandic and Esperanto.) The vocabulary of his language - "Mänti", meaning a type of tree - reflects the relationships between different things. The word "ema", for instance, translates as "mother", and "ela" is what a mother creates: "life". "Päike" is "sun", and "päive" is what the sun creates: "day". Tammet hopes to launch Mänti in academic circles later this year, his own personal exploration of the power of words and their inter-relationship.His website, Optimnem sells foreign language courses. Personally I found the idea of his "Mänti" language a bit pointless and silly when he can already speak multiple languages and there exists already Esperanto., but whatever rocks his boat.

Some other reviews I’ve read find difficulty in the fact that he is homosexual and Christian but there will always be naysayers and haters out there. In the ¾ quarter section of the book the narrative drifts a bit during his discussion of how he sees God & that could be my own bias in not being particularly interested one way or the other - and while I appreciate why he included it (to show he does have empathy and feelings etc), his openness on his sexuality and beliefs have probably caused him more derision than acceptance in some religious sectors. He does delve into religious matters more deeply on his blog.

Overall I’d recommend “Born on a Blue Day” to anyone interested in the workings of the human mind (particularly if you love maths). Daniel Tammet is an interesting guy. Exceptional in some areas and pretty normal in others. I feel the most positive thing is the overriding sense you get from Tammet’s life is that you cannot hurl everyone into the same basket based on stereotypical medical categories like “savant” or “asperger’s”. While he is awesome calculating pi he does the dishes just like us.

*library borrow(less)

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Oct 17, 2010 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hot-books-read

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of and Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet is an extraordinary, indeed, unprecedented memoir. Because savant syndrome and autism, even in it’s mildest form, affect emotional experience, social interaction, and imagination, the public communication of individuals like Tammet is usually limited to displaying feats of calculation and memorization. Tammet’s life story highlights his acquisition of social skills and how the acceptance of family and frien...more

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Dec 09, 2008 Simmoril rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first heard about Daniel Tammet through a special the BBC did called 'Brainman', and I was so inspired by it, that I just had to find out more about this extraordinary person. His love of numbers and foreign languages, as well as his immense memory capabilities just absolutely blew me away.

When I first came across 'Born on a Blue Day', I thought that it would be a rehash of the BBC special in written form. But after just a few chapters, I realized that this book reveals a very different side o...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: autistics, people interested in the mind

Shelves: autism, memoir, nonfiction, 2007, read-for-fun, read-postcollege

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant whose special talents include lightning-fast calculation (including calendrical calculation --- telling on what day of the week any given date will fall), amazing facility with languages (he currently speaks ten, and has even made up his own language) and a near-perfect memory for facts and figures (he's the current European record-holder for reciting pi to the greatest number of digits). He's also a synesthete, which helps him considerably in performing these...more Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant whose special talents include lightning-fast calculation (including calendrical calculation --- telling on what day of the week any given date will fall), amazing facility with languages (he currently speaks ten, and has even made up his own language) and a near-perfect memory for facts and figures (he's the current European record-holder for reciting pi to the greatest number of digits). He's also a synesthete, which helps him considerably in performing these mathematical and mnemonic feats by giving each number its own distinctive color, shape and emotion. He describes memorizing pi as a walk through a dreamscape, with the differently colored hills and valleys corresponding to different stretches of digits.

(My favorite turn of phrase in the whole book --- which admittedly is fairly artless, but I didn't mind that --- was when he compared memorizing pi to running a marathon in his head. I liked that because, given how he'd just described the experience, it was literally true.)

The book starts out with a brief chapter describing how his synesthesia works, and then goes on to chronicle his life. Other reviewers have complained that a lot of these sections feel forced, like Tammet is himself bored by recounting the trivial details of his life, but feels like he has to in order to write this book. I agree to an extent --- it is clear that the book's heart is in the sections describing numbers, languages and his meeting with fellow savant Kim Peek --- but I also understand why he chose to include his life history. He speaks near the end of the book of wanting to work closely with neuroscientists to figure out how his mind works, and to help answer larger questions about synesthesia, savantism, learning, and the extent to which abilities like his may be latent in most people's brains. To me, his laying out every detail of his infancy and childhood looked like a necessary part of that cooperation.

(Those sections also held some special interest for me, as another autistic person, because I could compare my development and experiences with his.)

I also feel like I have to answer the reviewer below who called Tammet a sociopath. My impression as I was reading his book could not have been further from that! I got the impression that he was loving, kind, deeply humble, and authentically curious about other people and willing to let them into his life. Indeed, of all the (other) autistic people whose autobiographies I've read, Daniel Tammet is one of two I'd most like to meet (the other is Dawn Prince-Hughes), and he seems to me to have the warmest personality.(less)

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Nov 21, 2008 Chrissie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medical, kirkus, bio, text-checked, philo-psychol

Interesting - actually more questions have arisen in my mind about autism than when I started the book. Three stars - which means I liked it. Well I quess I liked it, sort of. What it did give me is a real feeling for how the author sees life. He has both Asperger's syndrome and synaesthesia. Look them up in Wikipedia if you don't know the terms. There they are explained better than any explanation I could give! What makes this person unique is his ability to explain to us how his brain is worki...more Interesting - actually more questions have arisen in my mind about autism than when I started the book. Three stars - which means I liked it. Well I quess I liked it, sort of. What it did give me is a real feeling for how the author sees life. He has both Asperger's syndrome and synaesthesia. Look them up in Wikipedia if you don't know the terms. There they are explained better than any explanation I could give! What makes this person unique is his ability to explain to us how his brain is working. Most individuals with these syndromes cannot do this.

Individuals with Asperger's sybdrome cannot function well socially. One feels this in the way the book is written - there is always a distance between the reader and the writer. There is something missing in the emotional connection between the book and the reader. I didn't like this, but one cannot blame the author for this since he is autistic. What the author did to remarkably well is get me to understand how he thinks!

I can immediately relate to some of the ways he reacts to specific situations. I can understand how talking to himself when he is stressed gives him strength and security. I also understand how the constancy of numbers gives him security. They are so fixed and stable. On the other hand sometimes I am left totally out in the cold with no understanding and questions surround me. I don't understand how he can have difficulty with abstract concepts and yet feel religious. I can understand his proficiency with numbers because it is tied to his concrete, exact, logical way of looking at the world, but how can he be so good at learning languages which are not logically structured? Perhaps because he is able to see patterns which I do not see. Or maybe he suceeds because he uses visual images to aid him. I know I am not being clear here, but as I read the book so many questions arose that made me uncomfortable. OK, here is another one - how did he manage to go off to Lithuania by himself? It just doesn't fit with his other capabilities. But he did do it, and it is marvelous that he could. Still, I am left with question after question after question. This was upsetting.(less)

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Jul 07, 2008 Ro rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having two little brothers that fall on the Autistic Spectrum really made me empathize with Daniel Tammet and the struggles he faces every day just to function. I like that he never glamorized his eventual worldwide fame as one of the few savants that exist and are open enough to tell their stories to all of us so that we may better understand theirs.

Anyone who is familiar with the inflection (or lack thereof) of an Autistic person will instantly feel at ease with Tammet's voice. He tells the s...more

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May 10, 2008 Amie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in the human mind

Recommended to Amie by: Ron Phillips

This is an autobiographical account of a man with Asperger's Syndrome - a very high functioning autism. In addition, he is a mathematical savant (very few autistic individuals are like this). A couple of years ago I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which is written from the perspective of an autistic boy. I was so intrigued by that book, that I definitely wanted to read this one. I didn't enjoy this one as much. They are very different reads, one fiction and one not.

I wa...more

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Apr 15, 2008 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007-08

Born on a Blue Day is one of the only books I've read this year that actually taught me something. It provides a rare glimpse into the mind of a person who is both autistic and a savant. The MOST surprising thing, however, is how Daniel was able to overcome autism, write this book, and lead an independent and "normal" life. The memoir follows Daniel's progress from birth to adulthood and the author is very matter-of-fact and analytical when helping people without autism understand his past emot...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Silk rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone, teens with autism, parents of same

Recommended to Silk by: the gifted education director at my son's school

Shelves: favorites, education-and-home-schooling, family-marriage-parenting

Ok, I'm not sure what to do about the star system, but I loved this book so much that it's a five for me. It's non-fiction, and I wouldn't say exactly that it's poetically written, or great literature, but I found it amazing. For one thing, forget the sexy title, the really interesting stuff in here is about this man's struggles, or may I even go so far as to be politically incorrect and say "deficits." How he copes with those differences is much more intriguing than his savant aptitudes.

I real...more Ok, I'm not sure what to do about the star system, but I loved this book so much that it's a five for me. It's non-fiction, and I wouldn't say exactly that it's poetically written, or great literature, but I found it amazing. For one thing, forget the sexy title, the really interesting stuff in here is about this man's struggles, or may I even go so far as to be politically incorrect and say "deficits." How he copes with those differences is much more intriguing than his savant aptitudes.

I realize that people are getting more interested in hearing about autism currently, for which I am very thankful, but this book works for anyone who doesn't "fit in" or is going through the struggle of adolescence. How Daniel describes feeling like the odd one out in his family, being puzzled about how to make friends, being the proverbial square peg in a round hole are really universal themes. I don't downplay the autism aspect though, for anyone who wants to understand better what it's like to be in the shoes of someone who toils with the challenge of autism, either as an individual or a caretaker, this book really helps break it down very personally and clearly.

Frequently, one of the more difficult characteristics of autism is the strain to communicate, not only with speech but also in writing. Daniel is able to articulate so beautifully what goes on in his head and compare it with neuro typical experiences that I am doubly impressed. It really sheds a light for those of us who can't relate, and puts into words what other autistic individuals feel but can't express.

I think other parents of kids with aspergers or high functioning autism are going to find great hope in these pages. No, he still can't drive, and his life isn't easy, but it's definitely blessed; he lives independently, and by focusing on his strengths rather than problems he is financially independent with his own web business, has a healthy adult romantic relationship, and tries hard to advocate for others with autism by taking advantage of educational opportunities even though it's hard for him. It's a simple, quick read without a lot of scientific jargon to slow it down. I didn't just enjoy this book, I thank him for it.

By the way, I haven't taken the time to write a review, but another book that I really liked with similar themes is John Elder Robison's Look Me In the Eye.(less)

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Jan 14, 2008 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Parents or siblings of someone with Aspergers

Recommended to Adam by: Costco

Shelves: non-fiction

I think I was expecting something different when I picked up this book and even after I had seen part of the movie that was made about Daniel Tammet's life. I was hoping for more detail pertaining to how he sees numbers, people, letters, languages, etc. differently from other people. More about synesthesia. Maybe more amazing stories and exercises demonstrating his ability to work out math problems or logic puzzles quicker than a person who is not a savant. Instead, most of the book is a slow sl...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars

How interesting, this book works in a number of ways, and fails in a few others. It's nearly as interesting for its failings as for its successes. It is, as promised, a glimpse into an "extraordinary mind," but it's not just all the things the author says about his experiences (the time he recited the digits of pi for a record setting length, the time he first overcame significant fear to fly on a plane, when he become public speaker counseling others on the minds of savants) there's also the wa...more

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Oct 25, 2007 Irishcoda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! I read this book because I wanted to understand more about autistic spectrum disorders since T (my grandson) was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified. When Born On A Blue Day first came out, I wanted it right away. What better way to learn about autism than by reading a book by a person who has it?

Daniel Tammet has another form of autism, Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is considered a higher functioning form of autism because the kids diagnosed with it us...more Wow! I read this book because I wanted to understand more about autistic spectrum disorders since T (my grandson) was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified. When Born On A Blue Day first came out, I wanted it right away. What better way to learn about autism than by reading a book by a person who has it?

Daniel Tammet has another form of autism, Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is considered a higher functioning form of autism because the kids diagnosed with it usually don't have language delays. All ASDs involve problems with socialization and with connecting to people. One of the issues the author discusses is his lack of feeling toward other classmates. He didn't care that they teased him or tried to embarrass him. He barely noticed them. Another example is when his father became very ill. Tammet writes that he wasn't sure how to react as his father collapsed. He knew that he should stay with his father until his mother arrived. At the end of the book, he does write that he realizes how much his family loves him and as much as he is able, he loves them back.

Parts of the book just totally blew my mind away. Tammet describes how he thinks--in shapes, numbers and colors. He explains his thought processes as he solves a puzzle. There is no way I can repeat any of it here because it was beyond my ability to understand or conceptualize. We don't think that way, most of us, and that's not to say it's wrong but it is most definitely different. Reading this book helped me to understand better why our T has trouble processing language and repeating sounds.

Daniel Tammet also has savant syndrome. He is able to do the most amazing feats with numbers. He raised money for the epilepsy foundation by memorizing a record breaking number of decimal place numerals for pi--over 20,000. It took him over five hours to recite all those numbers by memory!

One of his proudest moments was meeting Kim Peek, the autistic savant upon whom Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man was based. Tammet has participated in a lot of research projects to help us understand more about how people with autism think and process. He is self-employed and works from home although he did recount troubles he's had with job interviews. He is in a long lasting relationship with his partner overcoming issues of becoming emotionally close with another person. He and his partner own their own home.

It's an amazing, inspiring story. Daniel Trammet is awesome. Read his book and see for yourselves!(less)

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May 09, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An absolutely fascinating book by a savant, Daniel Hammet, who has struggled his way to being incredibly warm and loving and communicative in addition to being eerily brilliant (learned Icelandic in a week; recited more than 24,000 digits of pi from memory). The book is his recounting of his struggle to come out of himself -- an engrossing place to be -- to connect with others. This is a huge challenge for him, distracted as he is by the fact that he sees beautiful shapes and colors when he sees...more

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Jun 11, 2008 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Annie by: Kim

Shelves: memoirs

My sister Kim recommended this book to me and I am very glad she did. It concerns an interesting topic,austism. Daniel is an austic savant and in this book he tells his life story and the way he experiences the world. For an austic person (he is obviously on the high-functioning scale) to clearly articulate his feelings and his life is relatively rare. His mind is very unique and this book gives readers an understanding of the differences between "normal" and autistic. He recounts from an early...more

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Dec 03, 2009 Heidi Larew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Favorite quotation: "I had eventually come to understand that friendship was a delicate gradual process that musn't be rushed or seized upon but allowed and encouraged to take its course over time. I pictured it as a beautiful butterfly, simultaneously beautiful and fragile that once afloat belonged to the air and any attempt to grab at it would only destroy it."

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Apr 10, 2012 Beth Cato rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: autism, nonfiction, 2012

In this very straightforward and easy to read memoir, Daniel Tammet describes how his mind works with synesthesia, his struggles during childhood, and how he has blossomed as an adult. Tammet earned fame in the past decade after he took on a challenge to memorize and recite pi to over 22,500 digits, and did so in a marathon session. He was also challenged to learn Icelandic within the span of a week, with only three days of immersion in the country. However, his early childhood memories are just...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Mo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not a bad book, but it could've been better. While the story is interesting to read, it never really managed to touch me or draw me in. It's informative to have a look into the mind of someone like Daniel Tammet, but I feel a collection of short essays on various aspects of how his mind works might have been a better format to communicated that information. For while the way his mind works is interesting enough, Tammet's life-story really isn't all that unusual. Yes, he perceives things differen...more

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Oct 10, 2008 Homeschoolmama rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an excellent book written by a man who is an autistic savant. I was very touched by his graciousness and humility. He recounts his childhood, a very difficult and painful time, and yet there is no bitterness. His trials growing up 'different' did not keep him from remaining grateful for his extraordinary gifts, and for the people around him who helped him along the way. I recommend this book to anyone, but especially those who are on the spectrum, as they say, and their family/friends.

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Mar 13, 2013 Kelsi Egan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

my second experience with firsthand accounts of autism. Since I've somehow get used to the "strange" way i which high-functioning Aspergian writes from "Look me in the eyes," it didn't surprise me that there was not much emotion in this book. Moreover, there were much more facts and unnecessary details - of course to us they seem unnecessary - and it does seem like we're listening to Daniel incessantly retelling his stories in a manner similar to when he talks about something he really likes and...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Ms.pegasus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in Asperger's Syndrome

Shelves: memoir, neuroscience, nonfiction

If you have read BORN ON A BLUE DAY by Daniel Tammet, chances are you either know someone with Asperger's Syndrome or have seen the author profiled on television. If you fall into neither of these categories, please consider reading this book.

Asperger's is considered to be on the autism spectrum. As a syndrome, it is a cluster of symptoms that can include difficulty interpreting social cues and emotional processing, However, any individual with Asperger's is a complex product of both personalit...more If you have read BORN ON A BLUE DAY by Daniel Tammet, chances are you either know someone with Asperger's Syndrome or have seen the author profiled on television. If you fall into neither of these categories, please consider reading this book.

Asperger's is considered to be on the autism spectrum. As a syndrome, it is a cluster of symptoms that can include difficulty interpreting social cues and emotional processing, However, any individual with Asperger's is a complex product of both personality and the syndrome. This book was not written in order define Asperger's. Instead, try to remember what it was like when you were a child as Tammet tells his story. There is the emotional response to the mere sound of a word, before cognizance of definition (the roots of onomatopoeia). There is the ability to create metaphor that neurologists call synesthstic experience. Anyone who ever spent a childhood intrigued by solving mathematical puzzles will relate to Tammet's childhood enthusiasm for numbers and codes.

Tammet's interests are varied. He speaks of gravitating toward chess because the focus is on the moves and the game, not interacting with other people. He also loves the quiet that envelopes the game room, allowing him to block out distractions. He attributes a particular aptitude for proofreading to his ability to focus on details rather than processing holistically. He speaks of a obsessive phases. He was fascinated with the tactile sensation of chestnuts and collected so many, his parents were afraid the floor would give way and demanded he keep his collection in the yard. Then, suddenly one day he moved on to a new interest.

Those who have previously heard of Tammet will recall that he is a mathematical savant. He sees numbers in his mind as shapes and colors. This in turn enables him to process complex mathematical problems effortlessly: Identifying prime numbers, multiplication, probability and permutations. One of his most treasured experiences is meeting Kim Peek, the inspiration for the Rainman character in the film. Kim articulates one of the central themes of the book: “You don't have to be disabled to be different, because everybody's different.”

This is a candid view of an extraordinary person's way of thinking.

NOTE: I read this book in 2010, but wanted to add it after recently reading NOT EVEN WRONG, another book about autism. Anyone interested in a deeper discussion of synesthesia should take a look at V.S. Ramachandran's book, THE TELL-TALE BRAIN.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 L.L. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

Dziś recenzja w formie wniosków w kolejności, w jakiej się u mnie pojawiały. Nie ukrywam, że przeczytałem głównie dlatego, by sprawdzić na ile bliskie mi jest to o czym pisze autor.

Autor zbierał kasztany, ja też, znosiłem do domu całe worki, "musiałem podnieść każdego kasztana" - ja też, nie wiem czemu, musiałem mieć wszystkie, które leżały. Ale nie myślałem o tym nigdy, dopiero teraz czytając uświadomiłem sobie, że tak samo czułem.
"To było jak wewnętrzny przymus, po prostu musiałem podnieść każ...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Knowing little of Asbergers....This is a very interesting book written by Daniel Tammet who is a highly functional individual, who sits on the Asberger’s spectrum. The 'Blue Day' the title of the book, is the day on which he was born, a Wednesday, which in his minds eye are described as blue.

Interestingly Daniel sees objects as colours, numbers and shapes. He also has an astounding ability to recognise every prime number up to 9,973 by their 'pebble like quality'. Sounds strange - but he guides...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Ivonne Rovira rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Daniel Tammet doesn't exhibit the greatest literary style in his Born on a Blue Day. It reads as a series of anecdotes strung together; however, that doesn't matter. His book is one of the finest insights into what it feels like to be a high-functioning autistic.

Tammet additionally has synesthesia, which means he "sees" numbers and letters in colors and shapes. Not all autistics have that: My two daughters do not. Nor are all those with synesthesia autistic. But Tammet credits the synesthesia wi...more

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About Daniel Tammet

Daniel Tammet was born in a working-class suburb of London, England, on 31 January 1979, the eldest of nine children. His mother had worked as a secretarial assistant; his father was employed at a sheet metal factory. Both became full-time parents.

Despite early childhood epileptic seizures and atypical behaviour, Tammet received a standard education at local schools. His learning was enriched by a...more Daniel Tammet was born in a working-class suburb of London, England, on 31 January 1979, the eldest of nine children. His mother had worked as a secretarial assistant; his father was employed at a sheet metal factory. Both became full-time parents.

Despite early childhood epileptic seizures and atypical behaviour, Tammet received a standard education at local schools. His learning was enriched by an early passion for reading. He won the town's 'Eager Reader' prize at the age of eleven. At secondary school he was twice named Student of the Year. He matriculated in 1995 and completed his Advanced level studies (in French, German, and History) two years later.

In 1998 Tammet took up a volunteer English teaching post in Kaunas, Lithuania, returning to London the following year. In 2002 he launched the online language learning company Optimnem. It was named a member of the UK's 'National Grid for Learning' in 2006.

In 2004, Tammet was finally able to put a name to his difference when he was diagnosed with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre.

The same year, on March 14, Tammet came to public attention when he recited the mathematical constant Pi (3.141...) from memory to 22,514 decimal places in 5 hours, 9 minutes, without error. The recitation, at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, set a European record.

Tammet began writing in 2005. His first book, Born On A Blue Day, subtitled 'A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind', was first published in the UK in 2006 and became a Sunday Times bestseller. The US edition, published in 2007, spent 8 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2008, the American Library Association named it a 'Best Book for Young Adults'. It was also a Booklist Editors' Choice. It has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide, and been translated into more than 20 languages.

In 2009, Tammet published Embracing the Wide Sky, a personal survey of current neuroscience. The French edition (co-translated by Tammet himself) became one of the country's best-selling non-fiction books of the year. It also appeared on bestseller lists in the UK, Canada, and Germany, and has been translated into numerous languages.

Thinking in Numbers, Tammet's first collection of essays, is published in August 2012.

In 2008 Tammet emigrated to France. He lives in Paris.

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Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind

Thinking In Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant

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“No relationship is without its difficulties and this is certainly true when one or both of the persons involved has an autistic spectrum disorder. Even so, I believe what is truly essential to the success of any relationship is not so much compatibility, but love. When you love someone, virtually anything is possible.” — 11 people liked it

“You don't have to be disabled to be different, because everybody's different.” — 6 people liked it

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