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Title details for Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet - Available

Born on a Blue Day

Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

by Daniel Tammet
Simon Vance
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
One of the world's fifty living autistic savants is the first and only to tell his compelling and inspiring life story—and explain how his incredible mind works.


Worldwide, there are fewer than fifty living savants, those autistic individuals who can perform miraculous mental calculations or artistic feats (think Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man). Until now, none of them has ever been capable of discussing his or her thought processes, much less undertake the writing of a book. Daniel Tammet is the first.


From childhood, Tammet's problems were immediately apparent. He was shunned by his classmates and often resorted to rocking and humming quietly. Yet he could memorize almost anything, and his math and language skills were astonishing. By the time he entered high school, Daniel was diagnosed as autistic, and he began to discover his own superhuman abilities—calculating huge sums in his head in seconds, learning new languages in one week, and memorizing more than 22,000 digits of pi.


With heart-melting simplicity and astonishing self-awareness, Born on a Blue Day tells Daniel's story—from his childhood frustrations to adult triumphs—while explaining how his mind works. He thinks in pictures. He sees numbers as complex shapes; thirty-seven, for example, is lumpy like porridge, while eighty-nine reminds him of falling snow. Today, Daniel has emerged as one of the world's most fascinating minds and inspiring stories. While his brain has amazed scientists for years, everyone will be moved by this remarkable man's life story.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 9, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400124039
      • File size: 191039 KB
      • Duration: 06:37:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1170
    • Text Difficulty: 8-9

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Although Daniel Tammet is only 27, as an autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome, he has already lived an unusual life. Strict routines are necessaryâ the same number of flakes of porridge for breakfast and cups of tea at exactly the same time each day. He can recite pi to 22,514 places from memory, and he learned Icelandic in a week. He experiences synesthesia, which makes him see numbers and letters as shapes and colors and emotions. (He was born on a Wednesday, which is a blue day.) Simon Vance enhances this memoir with a sensitive performance. He affects an almost imperceptible awkwardness of speech to capture the spirit of Tammet as an extraordinary and successful individual. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 4, 2006
      This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, 27-year-old British autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome. Tammet's ability to think abstractly, deviate from routine, and empathize, interact and communicate with others is impaired, yet he's capable of incredible feats of memorization and mental calculation. Besides being able to effortlessly multiply and divide huge sums in his head with the speed and accuracy of a computer, Tammet, the subject of the 2005 documentary Brainman
      , learned Icelandic in a single week and recited the number pi up to the 22,514th digit, breaking the European record. He also experiences synesthesia, an unusual neurological syndrome that enables him to experience numbers and words as "shapes, colors, textures and motions." Tammet traces his life from a frustrating, withdrawn childhood and adolescence to his adult achievements, which include teaching in Lithuania, achieving financial independence with an educational Web site and sustaining a long-term romantic relationship. As one of only about 50 people living today with synesthesia and autism, Tammet's condition is intriguing to researchers; his ability to express himself clearly and with a surprisingly engaging tone (given his symptoms) makes for an account that will intrigue others as well.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1170
  • Text Difficulty:8-9

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