Review: Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

Title: Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Author: Daniel Tammet
Year Published: 2006

Genre: Non-fiction, memoir

Pages: 226

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location (my 2013 Google Reading map): UK


FTC Disclosure: I borrowed this book from my school library

Summary (from the back of the book): Born on a Blue Day is a journey into one of the most fascinating minds alive today--guided by the owner himself. Daniel Tammet is virtually unique among people who have sever 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 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 the most unimaginable mental powers, much like those portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man.

Review: This review is going to be really short, but boy the brain is a mysterious thing! This book is fascinating because the author really shows the reader what it is like to be inside his head. While I found that interesting, I did end up skimming some bits where he went into great detail about how he figures out certain things because the detail was too much for me. But even those parts are showing how he thinks and feels.

I also liked the personal touches including how he interacts with his family, how he fell in love, and how his relationships with friends work. I think this read is well worth it if you have any interest in Asperger's, Autistm, numbers, or the Savant syndrome.