Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet (4 stars)

This insight into a savant's brain is fascinating. Daniel is unique in that he has the talents of a savant (e.g. memorising 22,514 digits of pi in a few days), but is capable of leading a relatively normal life, being in a relationship, and even writing about all of it in an autobiography.

The high point of the book for me was seeing a graphical representation of a string of numbers from pi as visualized by Daniel. He has synesthesia, a neurological 'union of the senses', which in Daniel's case means he perceives numbers and words as having particular colours and shapes. He shows a painting of his visualisation of the same sequence of numbers in this TED talk. The idea that someone's brain is so different that they can see the number "1" as a bright light, when I just see a 1, is really pretty amazing.

Daniel's Asperger's means he struggles with many of the things, particularly interactions with other people, that most people can accomplish without any conscious thought. It was fascinating watching the David Letterman interview after reading Daniel's behind-the-scenes account. He seems completely calm and collected on stage, but it was actually a very challenging thing for him to do.

Daniel also meets Kim Peek (the real "rain man") as part of the "Brainman" documentary, and while they share some savant talents there is a stark contrast between Daniel's high functioning autism and Peek's need for full time care.

I found some parts of the novel less interesting: such as lots of details of who he talked to in Lithuania, and the occasional side track into neurological research. But overall I enjoyed it, and this book left me intensely hoping that Daniel can move beyond simple demonstrations of his impressive talents and use his abilities to change the world. I wish him all the best.

4 stars