Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

 

 

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This is an astonishing book, written in first person. It is a memoir of the author's life with the "synaesthesia and savant syndrome", a rare form of Asperger's syndrome.

People with synaethesia see numbers as forms with color and texture, and days as vivid colors, and so Daniel Tammet has the ability to see in his mind numbers and days as colors, each number and day having its own distinct color as an attribute. A day with a color, like a flower with a scent! The blue day of the title of this book refers to Wednesday, which, like the number nine, he sees in his mind as blue. "I know it was a Wednesday," narrates Tammet, "because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud voices arguing."

Daniel is also a savant, with a remarkable ability to multiply and divide given numbers with astonishing speed. He can recite from memory the number pi, 22 divided by 7, or 3.1428571 to 22,514 decimal places, a feat which will take him a little over five hours! He says numbers are beautiful things, and that pi is as beautiful as Mona Lisa.

Like Christopher John Francis Boone, the fifteen year old hero of Mark Haddon's novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time", Daniel, too, is very fond of prime numbers. "Prime numbers feel smooth, like pebbles," he says. He can recognize every prime number up to 9,973. He can speak in ten languages, including Icelandic, Lithuanian and Welsh, and he has the ability to learn a new language within a few days. He learnt Icelandic, for example, within a week; a most remarkable feat for any human being. He doesn't understand jokes easily, and the expressions on human faces he finds baffling. And like Christopher, he doesn't like to be touched.

He is perhaps the only person in this world with the "synaesthesia and savant syndrome" who has written a book in his own words, without using a ghost writer. What causes this syndrome is a mystery to neurologists; they have been trying to unravel the mystery, so far without much success. They speculate that a series of seizures Daniel suffered in his childhood might have caused the savant syndrome. But this is just their speculation; no one knows the real cause.

For a man who sees numbers and days as colors, this book is written in a simple, bland, colorless prose. Nevertheless, reading this book is a marvelous and rewarding experience. This book will touch and warm your heart.

A must read for parents and family of autistic children and adults. To finally discover an explanation for the little habits...obsession with spinning, walking in circles, plugging/covering of the ears, rocking... It's all here in one place. While I have become very accustomed to my son's habits, I have never understood what exactly was causing the behavior. After reading Tammet's book, I feel I can better help my son enjoy his environment.

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then the savant gifts of Daniel Tammet are all the more startling because he has an ability to meld his senses together seamlessly to see things nobody else can. It's an impressive, even daunting prowess that comes at a high price since he has Asperger's syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes him to be limited in his ability to fit in with the larger culture, as well as synaesthesia, a condition where sounds, words or numbers can translate into colors, shapes or textures. In fact, the latter condition is reflected in the book's title as he associates the color blue with Wednesdays. What makes this book so thoroughly unique is that the book is not a treatise of a subject by a medical professional but a memoir by the subject himself.

As such, there are no grand conclusions drawn about either medical condition, or scientific assumptions of how Tammet came to his gifts. What the author does quite plainly is share how he approaches such astonishing feats as reciting pi to over 22,000 decimal points over the course of five hours. We get a palpable sense of how he perceives theorems and automatically develops strategies based on his innate sense with numbers and images. But before you can say Rain Man, you also see a young man who is actually functioning in the world on his own, which illustrates perfectly the spectrum of severity with autism. Tammet's affliction has mild enough for him to be relatively self-sufficient, even though his struggles to gain societal acceptance have been a traumatizing road.

Raised by loving parents, he spent most of his childhood alone and could only relate to fellow outsiders like immigrants and exchange students, people who heightened his facility for foreign languages. There were signs - a hyper-sensitivity to noise; almost complete literal-mindedness; a narrow but intense interests in a few, eccentric subjects at the exclusion of others; displays of socially inappropriate behavior (which he has since been able to manage); and peculiarities in speech and thought patterns. It all comes together as a fascinating portrait with no pretense toward a false sense of triumph over extreme adversity. Such clichés are better left to Lifetime TV-movies since Tammet lives a good, simple life in London with his life partner Neil Mitchell and is busy creating a new language and conquering other mathematical frontiers. One cannot help but root for him thanks to his wonderfully personal, unaffected memoir.

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of The Most Interesting Books I have Ever Read by an Amazing Man!
Daniel Tammet is a gifted man who happens to be an autistic savant. He has overcome his hardships--including epilepsy--and has learned to excel in life. Read more

Published 3 days ago by William T. Mcgee

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!
I really enjoyed his book! It was honest, smart and amazing! Thank you for sharng your story! I have a bunch of friends that have borrowed it after I read it!

Published 6 days ago by Kate

5.0 out of 5 stars Born on a Blue Day
`Born on a Blue Day' is the superb memoir of a young autistic man who has amazing numerical and synesthesia abilities due to his Savant (Aspergers) syndrome. Read more

Published 10 days ago by Spider Monkey

5.0 out of 5 stars Born On A Blue Day - Book
This book was represented as slightly used, however, it looked brand new. No scribbling anywhere or anything to tarnish it's pristine appearance. Read more

Published 10 days ago by Sarah McCloud

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing detail. Outstanding.
Totally fascinating real-life; hard to put down and get on with other things. This is the third copy I've purchased. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Fred D. Naslund

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellant for teacher, parents or anyone working with children with Autism
This is an excellant read for anyone working with children on the autism spectrum. It gives insight into what these children may be thinking are feeling.

Published 5 months ago by P. Weiser

5.0 out of 5 stars Born on a Blue Day
I found the book infinitely fascinating. I couldn't put it down. The way Daniel explains things makes so much sense to me. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Blast Radius

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not page-turning
The book provides rare perspective on the author's particular form of the disease, but it's anti-climatic. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Johura Turner

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, Fast Delivery!
This is a great book! I recommend it to everyone, for a little insight on the widely misunderstood world of mental health.

Published 11 months ago by Brandon Wallace

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective, merely an okay read
I've been teaching for 20 years so I've ran into a few students with Asperger's Syndrome over the years. Read more

Published 12 months ago by DWD

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