Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammet

http://www.powells.com/biblio/18-9781416535072-0: This is the memoir of a high-functioning individual with autism. Daniel Tammet grew up in England, the eldest of eight children, at a time when no one was very familiar with autism. He wasn't diagnosed until he was in his early 20s, and the book tells the story of growing up as an outsider. He also goes into great detail about how he learns - how he visualizes numbers as colors and shapes, which allows him to calculate extraordinary sums (and memorize pi out to more than 22,500 places) and learn new languages in mere weeks. This is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an individual with autism - and an important book in general about how different people learn and how complex our minds can be. With so many barriers, Tammet has managed to create a successful, happy, and productive life - it's enough to give someone with no barriers a complex.

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