Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind [Hardcover]

Daniel Tammet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009

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

Tammet explains that the differences between savant and non-savant minds have been exaggerated; his astonishing capacities in memory, math and language are neither due to 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. He explains how our natural intuitions can help us to learn a foreign language, why his memories are like symphonies, and what numbers and giraffes have in common. We also discover why there is more to intelligence than IQ, how optical illusions fool our brains, and why too much information can make you dumb.

Many readers will be particularly intrigued by Tammet's original ideas concerning the genesis of genius and exceptional creativity. He illustrates his arguments with examples as diverse as the private languages of twins, the compositions of poets with autism, and the breakthroughs, and breakdowns, of some of history's greatest minds. Embracing the Wide Sky is a unique and brilliantly imaginative portrait of how we think, learn, remember and create, brimming with personal insights and anecdotes, and 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 book that will transform our understanding and respect for every kind of mind.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In 2004, autistic savant Tammet reeled off 22,514 digits of pi from memory, setting a European record. How did he achieve such a feat? Is an autistic mind different from others? Yes and no, Tammet answers in this follow-up to his bestselling memoir, Born on a Blue Day. His own brain may be wired a little differently, but we are all capable of remarkable mental feats, he asserts. Tammet seamlessly blends science and personal experience in a powerful paean to the mysteries and beauty of the brain. Intelligence is a complex phenomenon that synthesizes various skills and abilities. Tammet illustrates this with his own abilities in memory, language and number sense. For example, he points out that his extraordinary memory for numbers is augmented by the unusual way in which my mind perceives numbers as complex, multi-dimensional, coloured and textured that allowed him to compose something like a visual song. Tammet concludes that all humans have something unique to contribute to the world, and he himself has a gift for rendering science accessible and even delightful. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Autistic savant Tammet's follow-up to his 2007 New York Times best-selling memoir, Born on a Blue Day, delves into the vast array of human understanding and how our brains work. Drawing on personal experience as well as on scientific research, he creates the equivalent of a good college lecture series, with the narrative generating interest as it develops. This smooth audio abridgment benefits from British actor Daniel Gerroll's narration, which renders the prosaic material intriguing. Recommended for public libraries with large audiobook collections. [Audio clip available through audio.simonandschuster.com; an alternate recording, with John Keating reading, is available from Recorded Books.—Ed.]—Lisa Powell Williams, Moline P.L., IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416569693
• ISBN-13: 978-1416569695
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Tammet is a writer and essayist. A 2007 poll of 4,000 Britons named him one of the world's "100 living geniuses." An autistic savant, he perceives words and numbers as shapes and colours and speaks several languages. His memoir, the award-winning New York Times bestseller Born on a Blue Day, has been translated into 24 languages. He is also the author of the international bestsellers 'Embracing the Wide Sky' and 'Thinking in Numbers'. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of Great Britain's Royal Society of Arts. He lives in Paris.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why you think the way you do January 23, 2009

By PT Cruiser TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I didn't read Daniel Tammet's first book, Born on a Blue Day (yet) but this book was one of the most fascinating and informative books about the way the human mind works that I've ever read. Daniel Temmet is an autistic savant and talks in this book about how similar autistic and non-autistic minds function. It gave me a whole new perspective on how we learn, remember and process thoughts.

It was particularly helpful to me in understanding how we learn language since I've been learning French for the past 10 years and more recently Italian. It's much more involved than I previously thought but I also came away with the idea that it's possible to learn several languages and be able to function in each of them. According to research it's believed that when a person learns more than one language as a baby and small child, both languages occupy the same small section of the brain, but when learning a second or third language, they are kept in a separate section of the brain. This makes sense since little kids can often go back and forth between languages whereas when I try to switch I can almost feel my brain opening another "compartment".

He discusses IQ tests and IQ and disputes where they can actually measure intelligence. There is a whole section on how the human brain processes information and how we remember things. We often hear that our brains are like computers, just processing information but he shows how they are so much more intricate than even the most advanced computers. There are studies showing that babies can count and he discusses arguments that a "number module" exists within the human brain.

There is so much fascinating information packed into this book and Tammet's writing style makes it all so interesting and not at all a dry subject. I had a hard time putting it down and read the book in two days. The only thing I wish, is that there was a little more about the way his brain processes subjects and information discussed in this book. But from what I understand, his first book, Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant goes more deeply into this. It's a book that I definitely want to read after reading this one.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The miracle and mystery of the human mind January 16, 2009

By Julie Neal TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Autistic savant author Daniel Tammet clearly has a beautiful mind, but the real focus of this important book is the boundless ability of EVERY human brain, "the treasures buried deep within us all." Tammet argues convincingly that the differences between a savant and an average person are not really so great. He debunks myths about savants, many due to the movie Rain Man, that seem to rob the humanity from these rare people. After several chapters explaining how his own mind works, he gives tips on how everyday brains can improve their functioning.

Tammet shows how IQ testing does not show the true intelligence of a person, and is inherently flawed. He agrees with Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, and shows that when schools espouse this view, student's grades improve.

I found it fascinating to learn that Tammet has trouble remember faces, but numbers are alive for him. "In my head, numbers assume complex shapes that interact to form solutions to sums," he explains. "I do not know where my number shapes come from. I do not know why I think of 6 as tiny and 9 as very large or why threes are round and fours pointy."

Peeking in on such a mind is an interesting experience; I highly recommend it!

Here's the chapter list:
1. Wider Than the Sky
2. Measuring Minds: Intelligence and Talent
3. Seeing What is Not There
4. A World of Words
5. The Number Instinct
6. The Biology of Creativity
7. Light to Sight
8. Food for Thought
9. Thinking by Numbers
10. The Future of the Mind

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars 40% Insightful May 23, 2009

By Robert Carlberg

Format:Hardcover

Tammet is a fine writer and his first book, the autobiography "Born on a Blue Day" was illuminating. This second book is a bit less so, because he allows himself to wander from the subjects he knows best and gets into the weeds.

Chapters 1 (about savantism), 3 (about memory), 4 (about words) and 5 (about numbers) are all interesting takes, with unique insights from the mind of a prodigious savant. These four chapters make the book worth reading, IMO.

On the other hand chapters 2 (IQ measurement), 6 (creativity), 7 (vision), 8 (organization of knowledge), 9 (innumeracy) & 10 (brain enhancement) are all plebeian treatments, with tired examples and a rather tedious style ("X says in his book Y that..."). Daniel tries to tie all these disciplines together into a sort of unified theory of mind, but the trouble is he really only knows his own inner workings well. When he recommends that poor people invest money toward a brighter future, or that over-population can't be a problem because Holland has high population density, he is really only showing his lack of worldliness.

Hopefully his next book will be a chip shot back onto the green.