This is the name of the last (but one) book I read. [I am not bloggin about ALL the books I read; some of them it would be better to skip here and forget I ever read for this purpose, with the aim of maintaining at least some dignity about my reading material :P]
Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet, is the true-life story of Daniel Tammet, a man with Asperger’s syndrome, also having savant abilities. His particular ability is a brilliance with numbers, which seem to arise from his way of seeing numbers…not like us (or at least me?), but each number has a particular colour associated with it, and also a kind of landscape it creates. His way of seeing numbers allows him to do mathematical calculations much more effortlessly than I can for sure!
This book is about his life, from when he was a kid, and how we found school, to now in his adulthood (he is 29 now; 30 at the end of this month, though the book was written in 2006), and how, due to his unusual ability to be able to explain how he does the calculations, and to express his thoughts, he is serving as a very good insight for researchers into the brains of people with Asperger’s and savant abilities; this clarity of thought is normally not found in people with these syndromes.
Really enjoyed reading the book – a real life story of a real-life person, who grew up in a normal family, but has some amazing abilities. Would really suggest it to anyone! Must say I really like the way the library here is divided, into sections for different kinds of books rather than by author throughout, since it allows me to rather than always stick to books I like their cover (yes! that’s the way I normally choose my books :P) to consciously make the decision to choose different types of books from different areas. Also, the last times I’ve been there there was this display of books in the form of diaries, like this one and the previous book I blogged about, The Palace Diaries. I would have probably not picked these books otherwise, but so glad I did now! I got other books this time round from that display (went again to the library today tog et new books :)), so I hope to blog about them soon!
Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammet
Rantings from Afar 
That sounds like an amazing book. I follow another blog written by the mother of a teenage son with Asperger. I will recommend this book to her straight away – and will be adding it to my reading list too.
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
By: teeweewonders on January 24, 2009
at 9:43 pm
@ teeweewonders: Thanks for visiting my blog! I left a comment on yours – hope you can figure it out :). I must say that the book was an interesting read…you should definitely check it out!
By: annmucc on January 24, 2009
at 10:07 pm
wow how cool sounds like my sort of book.. wonder if the jc library has it (highly doubt it, but you never know) if not I’ll just have to buy it, heq m’hemmx x’taghmel
By: mina on January 24, 2009
at 11:50 pm
Hehe…the way the library is divided seems great…better than just by author…cos well I choose my books the same way you used to hihi 😀
By: The bestest Fenech Twin on January 25, 2009
at 8:09 am
@ Mina: you should try to find it!
@ Cecilia: of COURSE you did it like I did it…cos we did it TOGETHER! 😛
By: annmucc on January 25, 2009
at 9:22 am
haha…that is just to tell you that things have not improved at all…axtually I just go to the just in books and choose from whatever is there :S
By: The bestest Fenech Twin on January 25, 2009
at 4:21 pm
[…] a lot of Africa and the rainforest, particularly Borneo it seemed, a comedienne, and Daniel Tammet. As soon as I saw him I immediately recognised him (which is why he is the only one I could find the […]
By: Museum of Curiosity « Rantings from Afar on April 29, 2010
at 5:21 pm