Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind

Written by Daniel Tammet

Narrated by Daniel Gerroll

From the New York Times bestselling author of Born on a Blue Day...

Owner of "the most remarkable mind on the planet" (Entertainment Weekly), Daniel Tammet captivated audiences and won worldwide critical acclaim with his 2007 memoir Born on a Blue Day and its vivid depiction of a life with autistic savant syndrome. In his fascinating new work, he writes with characteristic clarity and personal awareness as he sheds light on the mysteries of savants' incredible mental abilities -- and our own.

Daniel Tammet explains that the differences between savant and nonsavant minds have been exaggerated; his astonishing capacities in memory, math and language are due to neither a cerebral supercomputer nor any genetic quirk, but are rather the results of a highly rich and complex associative form of thinking and imagination. Autistic thought, he argues, is an extreme variation of a kind that we all do, from daydreaming to the use of puns and metaphors.

Embracing the Wide Sky combines meticulous scientific research with Tammet's detailed descriptions of how his mind works to demonstrate the immense potential within us all. It is a unique and brilliantly imaginative portrait of how we think, learn, remember, and create, brimming with personal insights and anecdotes and with explanations of the most up-to-date, mind-bending discoveries from fields ranging from neuroscience to psychology and linguistics. This is a profound and provocative work that will transform our understanding and respect for every kind of mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jan 6, 2009
• ISBN: 9780743572453

Daniel Tammet

Daniel Tammet is a writer, linguist, and educator. A 2007 poll of 4,000 Britons named him as one of the world's "100 living geniuses." His last book, the New York Times bestseller Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, has been translated into 18 languages. He lives in Avignon, France.

Reviews for Embracing the Wide Sky

[capfox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I greatly enjoyed Tammet's autobiographical work, considering his lucidity in explaining the workings of his mind, and how it seems to differ from others. So when I heard of his follow-up book, I thought it'd make for an interesting pickup. I was somewhat disappointed, but the book still had some real merit to it.In this work, Tammet attempts to get people to realize the power and flexibility of the brain and mind. The focus is on a large number of studies focusing on different areas - memory, math, language, etc. - and how each of them work in the face of some common misperceptions. For the most part, the book looks at the functionings of more normal minds, but Tammet also puts the workings of his autistic savant mind in contrast to these, and those are, to my mind, the most interesting parts of the book.That's not to say that the rest of it isn't interesting; I found much of it enjoyable, although if you've read other books on cognitive psychology, then you'll know some of it. However, I trust Tammet more on the workings of his own mind, rather than on his reports on the studies. I'm a linguist, and for the linguistics section, there were some plausible but somewhat wrong claims in it. If I didn't know, I'd probably believe it, and so it makes me wonder about the veracity of the other sections.Still, I find the book on the whole of value, if perhaps best taken with a grain of salt for some parts, because of the insights into the workings of his own mind that we gain, and I will still probably read more of his work in the future.

[annith-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What an odd book Daniel Tammet has written. Purportedly an overview of modern brain science, it stumbles from one topic to another, from developmental linguistics to synesthesia to systems of measuring intelligence to the nature of creativity to formal logic to optical illusions, and on and on. But perhaps not surprisingly given the breadth of coverage, the discussion of each topic is quite shallow. People who already know about any of these topics won?t learn much from this book?and neither will people who don?t. Tammet has Asperger?s syndrome and savant syndrome. He tells you that early in the book, but it?s also apparent in the cadence of the writing, which focuses heavily on enumerations of ideas: for example, at one point he gives a long account of the categories in the Dewey decimal system, which he prefers as an information access scheme to computer-based search. He insists repeatedly and relentlessly that brains can?t possibly function like computers, presumably to refute the stereotype of autistic savants as having brains that are computerlike. Unfortunately, his understanding of modern computer science, and especially artificial intelligence, is seriously flawed.Another problematic aspect of the book is the author?s focus on his own perspectives and achievements, which are hard to assess. As illustration of how creative he is, he tells us about Manti, a language he has been creating since he was a child, ?based on the lexical and grammatical structures of Baltic and Scandinavian languages (a particular fascination of [his]).? The book also has lots of advice for the reader. He tells us his ideas on how to learn foreign languages?Tammet claims he can become conversationally fluent in a new language over the course of a weekend. And he tells us how to avoid information overload: turn off your cellphone after work. Or how to Google effectively: use quotation marks.I?d hoped that while Tammet?s book might not provide a terribly useful exposition of brain science, it might be helpful in understanding what it is like to have autism. But there are other books, notably those of Temple Grandin, that do a much better job of that.

[glennbell_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The book is written by a savant by the name of Daniel Tammet. He has some special abilities in language and in numbers. His discussion regarding the mind is reasonable although at times basic. His discussion of how to improve rational skills is rudimentary. The novelty of the book is really the author and not so much in the content. I mildly recommend the book.

[lindap69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

written by Daniel Tammet, the savant who also wrote Born on a Blue Day, this is an insight into the mind and how it works - hopeful for the aged as those neural pathways do keep connecting!

[vpfluke · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a rather interesting book by a high-functioning person with Aspergers. He posits that there is a continuum between so-called normal into the various levels of autism. This seems plausible to me. Tammet writes well, and his first book, Born on a Blue Day, was quite widely read. He takes us through various theories of intelligences, such as Howard Gardner's eight kinds of intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, body-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic). Tammet takes us into memory and how story helps memory. I myself have some vey detailed memories, and have early childhood memories back to age 3 and remember many numerical types of numbers (e.g. bus frequencies), but I don't remmber names well, so as a whole I'm not outstanding as a whole.His forays into language learning and understanding, and into the instinct for numbers were quite well done. Towards the end, a little carp came into the book. This is a popular volume, and not systematic, but is worth the read.

[pennydart · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What an odd book Daniel Tammet has written. Purportedly an overview of modern brain science, it stumbles from one topic to another, from developmental linguistics to synesthesia to systems of measuring intelligence to the nature of creativity to formal logic to optical illusions, and on and on. But perhaps not surprisingly given the breadth of coverage, the discussion of each topic is quite shallow. People who already know about any of these topics won’t learn much from this book—and neither will people who don’t. Tammet has Asperger’s syndrome and savant syndrome. He tells you that early in the book, but it’s also apparent in the cadence of the writing, which focuses heavily on enumerations of ideas: for example, at one point he gives a long account of the categories in the Dewey decimal system, which he prefers as an information access scheme to computer-based search. He insists repeatedly and relentlessly that brains can’t possibly function like computers, presumably to refute the stereotype of autistic savants as having brains that are computerlike. Unfortunately, his understanding of modern computer science, and especially artificial intelligence, is seriously flawed.Another problematic aspect of the book is the author’s focus on his own perspectives and achievements, which are hard to assess. As illustration of how creative he is, he tells us about Manti, a language he has been creating since he was a child, “based on the lexical and grammatical structures of Baltic and Scandinavian languages (a particular fascination of [his]).” The book also has lots of advice for the reader. He tells us his ideas on how to learn foreign languages—Tammet claims he can become conversationally fluent in a new language over the course of a weekend. And he tells us how to avoid information overload: turn off your cellphone after work. Or how to Google effectively: use quotation marks.I’d hoped that while Tammet’s book might not provide a terribly useful exposition of brain science, it might be helpful in understanding what it is like to have autism. But there are other books, notably those of Temple Grandin, that do a much better job of that.

[winterfox-392140 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I greatly enjoyed Tammet's autobiographical work, considering his lucidity in explaining the workings of his mind, and how it seems to differ from others. So when I heard of his follow-up book, I thought it'd make for an interesting pickup. I was somewhat disappointed, but the book still had some real merit to it.In this work, Tammet attempts to get people to realize the power and flexibility of the brain and mind. The focus is on a large number of studies focusing on different areas - memory, math, language, etc. - and how each of them work in the face of some common misperceptions. For the most part, the book looks at the functionings of more normal minds, but Tammet also puts the workings of his autistic savant mind in contrast to these, and those are, to my mind, the most interesting parts of the book.That's not to say that the rest of it isn't interesting; I found much of it enjoyable, although if you've read other books on cognitive psychology, then you'll know some of it. However, I trust Tammet more on the workings of his own mind, rather than on his reports on the studies. I'm a linguist, and for the linguistics section, there were some plausible but somewhat wrong claims in it. If I didn't know, I'd probably believe it, and so it makes me wonder about the veracity of the other sections.Still, I find the book on the whole of value, if perhaps best taken with a grain of salt for some parts, because of the insights into the workings of his own mind that we gain, and I will still probably read more of his work in the future.