Thinking in Numbers: How Maths Illuminates Our Lives

Written by Daniel Tammet

Narrated by Daniel Tammet

This is the book that Daniel Tammet, bestselling author and mathematical savant, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes and everyday examples, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions and equations underpin all our lives.
Inspired by the complexity of snowflakes, Anne Boleyn's sixth finger or his mother's unpredictable behaviour, Tammet explores questions such as why time seems to speed up as we age, whether there is such a thing as an average person and how we can make sense of those we love.
Thinking in Numbers will change the way you think about maths and fire your imagination to see the world with fresh eyes.

(P)2013 Hodder & Stoughton

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Release date: Feb 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781444740042

Daniel Tammet

Formerly an autistic child whose mother tongue was numbers, Daniel Tammet is the author of a rich and widely acclaimed body of work, including memoirs, essays, literary reportage, poetry and fiction. Born on a Blue Day (2006) and Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017) were named by Booklist magazine among the editors' annual selections. Thinking in Numbers (2012) was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Tammet's books have been translated into thirty languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Reviews for Thinking in Numbers

[wren73-89184 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting book; it's sort of a collection of his thoughts concerning numbers, and applications of numbers. I followed most of it, although for some of it, I didn't have any background on the subject matter, and therefore did not grasp completely.

[pdcread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a series of essays by Trammet, an autistic savant, with the common themes of numbers.

Almost all the essays are fascinating, and are written with a refreshing clarity and eloquence. The subjects of the essays are wide and not what you would always consider to be mathematical, but they are eminently readable. My favourite is the one on Pi, where he talks about the mysteries of the number, and recounts he record breaking recital of Pi to 22,514 places.

Well worth reading even if you don't like maths!

[markberonte · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 THINKING IN NUMBERS is the book that Daniel Tammet, mathematical savant and bestselling author, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes, everyday examples, and ruminations on history, literature, and more, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions, and equations underpin all our lives.

[oddandbookish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't understand some of the essays, but some were so mind blowing. Definitely makes you think twice about the role of numbers in our lives.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This was, without let or hindrance, without qualification or hint of doubt, the most fatuous book that I have read all year.

marketed as an analysis of the ways in which mathematics affects all our lives, this is in fact a series of mindless essays based around contrived and extremely tenuous connections. Tammet seems to find huge significance in the fact that he is one of nine children in his family, there are nine months in the years whose names do not start with a J and that, until Pluto's recent demotion, there were nine planets in our solar system. Scarcely Trismegistian in its cosmological impact, and i hope you will forgive me for being entirely underwhelmed!

I was also struck by how poorly written this book was, to the extent that i was amazed that any publisher would countenance having it on their lists. Indeed, I would have been surprised to see any of these essays making it into the average school magazine. I have been trying to find something positive to say about it but am really rather stumped. ... Oh, yes, the cover was a nice shade of blue. That's really all I can manage!

[nrturner_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Between the author's and the abridger's attempts to make a dry abstract subject interesting for the lay reader, I found the concentration on surface details frustrating.
In the end it does convey the mystery and awe of mathematics, a little of what mathematicians do and why men and women feel passionate about abstractions like numbers.

I'm listening to a spoken audio adaptation abridged by Kirsteen Cameron.
In contrast to the author, I can think of English special-purpose names for small numbers e.g. pair, couple, triplets.

I'm not sure that the question how many number words does a language possess? is well posed. It may be difficult or impossible to decompose expressions into semantic units (words) in a language you are unfamiliar with.

If language is creative (so any new concept can be given a new name) what does it mean to say "This language has no word(s) for concept X."? Is the author merely indexing the size or curiosity of speaker populations?

The essay on teaching sounds more earnest.

An argument can be made top-down with the conclusion followed by the premises which are supposed to provide necessary and sufficient support for that conclusion, or vice-versa: premises followed by the conclusion.

A top-down argument is easier to understand (if the premises are simple enough) because the conclusion, read before the premises, provides context - making it easy to interpret each premise.

Perhaps the abridged essay presents a conclusion at the end, I found the stories aimless and wasn't sure why there were anecdotes about individuals until then. This essay conveyed the author's discovery that different people use numbers for different purposes.