Finished reading:

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet - I vaguely remember flipping through a random book at Borders about synesthesia, a neurological condition where one sense is connected to another sense (okay - wikipedia says it much better: "a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway"). Daniel Tammet, in his memoir, allows us to enter his experience as someone with Asperger's syndrome who because of his synesthesia is also a mathematical savant. Daniel describes his childhood and growing-up in a quiet, precise manner, and his story is inspirational because of how he learned to function and eventually exceed all expectations in his personal and professional life (one example: Daniel holds the European record for memorizing pi to over 22,500 digits).

With a bookmark:

(Books I just started reading, or books I’ve been “reading” for ages. Most recent first.)

• The Simplicity Reader by Elaine St. James
• Sacred Attitudes by Erica Ross-Krieger
• Body, Soul, and Baby by Tracy Gaudet
• What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee Hathaway
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson

In the library book box:

• Who Lies Here? by Ellis Peters
• The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.
• So That’s What They’re For! by Janet Tamero

I am not good at writing book reviews, hence I extracted a review here from Amazon.com, written by Allison which best expressed what I feel about this book:

I had only a vague notion of what autism was before reading this book -- lack of social skills, can't communicate emotions, etc. I had heard the trials and struggles that parents with autistic children have to endure, but hearing this struggles from the autistic person himself was eye-opening. He knows he's different but at the same time he's content with who he is. He understands that these same differences have made him the person he is today.

What was even more intriguing was Daniel's concept of mathematics and words (as a savant). Just reading his own visual landscape of numbers made me see math in a whole new light. It can have physical properties, it can express emotion or any other miriad of things (for Daniel, at least). Math is truly a separate language in this view. It's funny how his own unique perspective on numbers as physical shapes can click in your own mind. Somewhere, somehow, his way of thinking makes sense too. Of course it makes sense that you can multiply two numbers by creating a new shape between the other two (why didn't I ever think of it that way?). His insights (and those of other savants) into the worlds of math and language can open up whole new portals in these areas that we had never even thought of before.

This truly inspirational book extends far beyond autism and gives us all a glimpse at the human spirit, its dignity and strength, unique to every individual, but beautiful just the same.

Reading Daniel's autobiography left me awe stricken to the greatness of the human mind. There's so much we are yet to know about what we can be capable of when our brain is harnessed to its fullest.

My curiosity was piqued to find out more about Daniel Tammet after reading his autobiographer. I found some videos about him on Youtube. Here's the one where he made a guest appearance on the Late Night Show with David Letterman:

The BBC produced 60 minutes documentary, Daniel Tammet - The Boy with the Incredible Brain:

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