Categories: books
Date: 10 August 2010 10:52:51
Recently I read Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. It was one of those books I'd been meaning to read for a while but not got around to, but when I found myself with an unxepected book voucher I picked up. It was an easy, non-academic, read for the train when going on field work and to interviews and stuff. It's one mans story of dealing with difference. I found it useful for giving an insight into synasthesia, which several of those close to me have in different forms.
His website discribes the book in the following way, which I'm not going to try and improve upon : "Daniel sees numbers as shapes, colours and textures and can perform extraordinary maths in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. He has Savant Syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger's that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like the Rain Man portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.
Daniel has a compulsive need for order and routine - he eats exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he's wearing. If he gets stressed or unhappy he closes his eyes and counts. But in some ways Daniel is not at all like the Rain Man. He is virtually unique amongst people who have severe autistic disorders in being capable of living a fully independent life. It is his incredible self-awareness and ability to communicate what it feels like to live in a unique way that makes his story so powerful.
Touching as well as fascinating, Born On A Blue Day, explores what it's like to be special and in so doing gives us an insight into what makes us all human - our minds."
It is a moving book, but a book I also found useful in developing my understand and an enjoyable read. I can't recommend it highly enough.