I just finished Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet. Talk about an amazing book. I randomly saw this book one day on the shelf of a book store, read the back of it and it kind of stuck in my head so I ordered it. Daniel Tammet is a man who is highly functioning and has Aspergers syndrome. He is brilliant and the book details his life from childhood through where he is now.
He is a savant, similar to the character in Rain Man. He discusses his love of numbers and how he views them. In the beginning of the book he says "No matter where I go or what I'm doing, number are never far from my thoughts. Numbers are my friends, and they are always around me." To Daniel, each number is a different shape, color and texture. He sees them in his head and when doing mathematics problems they all work together in his head to form what he calls a mathematical landscape. I have to say I'm a little jealous! He memorized over 22,000 digits of pi and broke a record!!
The book isn't limited to his abilities. It also details his struggles as a child and the trails he went through with his family. The bright spots include how he was able to overcome some of the social pressures and stigmas surrounding autism and has truly become independent.
I suggest the book to anyone interested in reading about someone who has a unique ability to learn math and languages (several different ones), while limited by a disease that effects 1 in 110 children.
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