Book Review: Born on A Blue Day

Daniel Tammet is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, and is an autistic savant. In addition to this, he has synaesthesia (read more about synaesthesia here). This book is a sort of autobiography, in which Daniel describes his life (from childhood to adulthood), and details some of his most interesting experiences

Daniel is able to perform feats of mental ability that most of us can't even begin to imagine doing. He can compute complex mathematical problems very quickly in his head, can learn to speak a new language fluently within a week or two, can tell you what day of the week you were born on instantaneously, and has memorized and recited Pi (3.14...) to 22,500 decimal places. However, a description of these mental feats, on its own, would not make this a good book. This book is great because Daniel does an exceptional job of explaining how his experience differs from that of other, more typical, individuals. This is especially remarkable because he is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, and it seems that only a rare few of these individuals can put their exceptionalities into words.

Daniel does an great job of describing his childhood, in which he was a fairly typical child with Asperger's Syndrome--a child who behaved somewhat oddly and spent much of his time alone. He describes his experience in school, at home, and his experience with numbers and books, which highlights the beginnings of his synaesthetic experience. He describes his teenage years, his first (confusing) romantic feelings for someone else, his awkward interactions with peers, and the loneliness that he experienced. He then moves on to his adulthood, which is remarkably successful by any standards, let alone the standard adult outcome for someone with Asperger's Syndrome. Throughout this description of his experience, he provides invaluable insight into the way he experiences the world, the social difficulties associated with his disorder, the amazing results of his synaesthesia, and the remarkable courage he has needed in order to get to where he is today.

This book is a fairly easy read, and I recommend it to anyone looking to learn some more about the experience of individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and/or Synaesthesia, or, to people just looking for a good book).