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Born on a Blue Day

Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

By Daniel, Daniel Tammet, Tammet

(53)

| Hardcover | 9781416535072

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Book Description

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,Continue

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 sev- ere 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.

13 Reviews

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  • 2 people find this helpful

    Absolutely love it! David's story moves me a lot. He uses simple language to tell his story, and let you understand how he views this world through numbers. He is very articulate and honest about his own story. I become very interested about David and Asperger's syndrome after reading this book. You ... (continue)

    Absolutely love it! David's story moves me a lot. He uses simple language to tell his story, and let you understand how he views this world through numbers. He is very articulate and honest about his own story. I become very interested about David and Asperger's syndrome after reading this book. You can also check out his documentary ''The boy with an incredible brain'' in youtube.

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    Saxyscuba said on Aug 12, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    "Quite good" with a caveat - it's really not terribly well written. Fascinating, if you're interested in the way people's brains work (or don't), which I am, but there are times when his fascinations (for instance, his invented version of solitaire) can bog down the narrative.

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    Hold Your Spin said on Jul 3, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    A quick reading memoir of an autistic savant. This is written so even number challenged people can have a slight understanding of the amazing mind of Daniel Tammet. Would love to see the documentary about him as well.

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    Rameycreek said on Jun 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • This was a very interesting book about Savant Syndrome, synesthesia and autism. I liked Tammet's accounts of learning Icelandic and memorizing the number pi up to over 22,500 digits.

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    krin5292 said on May 31, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • his skill and journey overcoming all odds is fascinating but the story itself really rambles quite a bit...

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    Michaelkchan said on Dec 1, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Precious first-hand recount of a young man's life with Asperger's. So interesting and so moving.

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    ary29 said on Aug 4, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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