Born on a Blue Day

A Memoir

By: Daniel Tammet

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the world's 50 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 50 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 been able to discuss his or her thought processes, much less write a book. Daniel Tammet is the first.

Tammet's problems were apparent from childhood. 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 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: 37 is lumpy like porridge; 89 reminds him of falling snow. Today, Daniel has emerged as one of the world's most fascinating minds and inspiring stories. His brain has amazed scientists for years, and everyone will be moved by his remarkable life story.

©2007 Daniel Tammet (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Tanmet's] ability to express himself clearly and with a surprisingly engaging tone (given his symptoms) makes for an account that will intrigue." (Publishers Weekly)

Enough Already!!

OH my God!!! I only give this a 2 star rating just to give Daniel credit for this endeavor, but it was very dry. The only parts that were interesting were the parts about his childhood. At about the 3 hour mark I was ready to put it away, when I noticed on cable a documentary about him, and I thought, how ironic that I am listening to his book when his story came on TV. I enjoyed the television event, and that would have been enough for me. He does describe much of the events from the program in this book, but he drones on and on. I did enjoy his personality and demeanor on television and really wish he had narrated his own book. Perhaps it would have been more enjoyable. The narrator spoke with such a high British accent, that it just didn't sound like a 28 year old man. This all added to the boredom. Although I understand the attention to detail for persons with autistic disorders, there was just too much in this book. If anyone wants a great read about someone with Asperger's try reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I just listened to it yesterday, and laughed the whole way through. Maybe that was the cause of my disappointed with this book.

watch

This book had its interesting moments, but unless you're inordinately fascinated by numbers I would give it a pass. It gives a little insight into an autistic mind, but so does the aforementioned movie, as well as Temple Grandin's (more interesting) book, Animals in Translation.

Not what it promises to be

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

An actual good book about what goes on the head of a savant.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't. He is as boring as the book.

Any additional comments?

This book presents absolutely no insight about the mind of a savant. It is a story about a shy, nerd, gay guy, like most shy, nerd, gay guys I know. There is nothing special or exciting about this character. You will meet dozens like him in any CS, physics or math departments of any university in the world.

The book