Born on a Blue Day

I dislike non-fiction very much, but when I pick up a non-fiction memoir with such an inspiring story as this, then the book is honestly not that bad. I think the only down side of this book was the bland writing style, but it can be overlooked. While I was reading, I found it interesting that the people society shuns because of their lack of social skills are usually the most amazing type of people. Daniel Tammet is just one example. But I think what is more amazing is the success Daniel has had in his social skills and leading a relatively normal life as in moving out of his parent’s house. But I think a lot of these successes come from not only effort on Daniel’s part but the effort, support, and care of his family. For example, in one chapter Daniel talks about how all of his brother and sisters would play games Daniel invented just to spend time with him. I also found that normal things that constitute becoming independent, like moving two hours away to a college, are petty compared to what Daniel did to become more independent—he moved to a foreign country all by himself. He has to work ten times harder than the rest of us to obtain things we take for granted like friends, a job, and independence. But the book does not contain any self pity really. He just states the facts and tells how he learned to deal with his problems. Probably that is what amazed me the most because we complain about the smallest things and he accepts problems much worse than our everyday ones.