Sales for my book 'Born On A Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind' have been crazy good - for the first time today Amazon.co.uk are finally showing 'usually available in 24 hours' after initially running out of stock almost as soon as the book came out (after it hit #1 last Friday). I've been told that it's currently on its 4th print after one week - incredible. The talk in Dartington sold out, as has the one upcoming in Edinburgh next month. I think this must be the dictionary definition of an author's 'dream start'!
Thank you to everyone who has bought my book - feel free to send me your feedback via this site. I've had some really wonderful comments so far.
8 comments:
interesting... is this path leading up to the discovery of your existence.
Unfortunately... I won't be able to read yer book untill January of next year. (at least thats what the Borders here in Denver tells me)
But I hope all is well in your life and that you continue to exceed every0ne's expectations. Take Care & God Bless,
--aaron
p.s. congrats on the success of the book. I can hardly wait fer my turn ;)
Amazing, well deserved for all the effort you have put into your work. Keep up the energy. I hope you won't run out of things to say!
Hi Daniel
I just had to leave you a message, because I have been absolutely fascinated by your story ever since I saw your programme earlier this year. I love those sort of documentaries, but that was one of the most amazing I have ever seen... it left me wondering what sort of remarkable things are going on in the minds of people who are not quite so lucky enough to be able to tell us about it.
So I couldn't believe it when I saw you the other day on Richard and Judy! And when I heard about the book, I went out and bought it the very next day, and had finished reading it by the next.
You said you’d appreciate the feedback, so I thought I’d let you know what a great book I thought it was, and that it blatantly deserves the success it already seems to be getting.
Also I hope you don’t mind me pointing out a couple of very minor mistakes that might want to be changed for the next printing…
Mr Rush was a purple triangle, not green (I’m a big ex-Mr Man fan myself! Teehee. My website says it all!)
And, on page 107, you mention that if a woman has two children and one of them is a girl, the probability of the other being a girl is 2 in 3. If I understood your explanation correctly, the remaining possibilities are BG, GB and GG. So surely that is a 1 in 3 chance? Is that a mistake or am I not getting it properly?
Anyway, the book was both mind-boggling and heart-warming… a great combination!
I hope you don’t mind the fact I’ve written such a long message, but I just wanted to you to know the impact your story had on me.
Finally, it would be great if you could answer a couple of the following things that have been puzzling me ever since I heard about the way you see multiplications.
You say that if you, for example, think of 189 x 333, you see the number shapes separately and the answer kind of appears in the space formed in the middle?
Does that mean that if you swapped the sum round, so it says 333 x 189, the shape of the answer in the middle is back to front? So does a shape represent the same number regardless of which way round it is?
And does it also mean that all multiples of the same number have similar shaped edges?
Is that why your square numbers are symmetrical, because the two factors on either side are the same shape?
And finally, what happens if you imagine multiplying something by 1? Or 0?? My mind has gone fuzzy thinking about it!
I’m basically just intrigued, as I have been trying to get some idea of the logic of your number system!
Well, I’ll completely understand if you can’t reply to this outrageously long post, but I hope your upcoming talks go well, and good luck with the book, and with all the other things that are keeping you busy at the moment!
Best wishes
Martin Sears (born on 31st may 1984…would I be right in thinking that’s an orange day?)
Your said abilities are all fine and dandy, but...can you dance???
Hi Martin,
Thanks for pointing out the couple of boo-boos. I caught the probability one, but not the one about Mr Rush's colour.
Your example sum of 333x189 is especially beautiful as it's the same as 999x63 which is 62,937. 333 is a multiple of 37 (37x9) and 37 - as I describe in my book - is a very distinctive shape like lumpy porridge.
When I'm visualising the answer to a calculation it doesn't matter whether the numbers are reversed or not, the shape that forms as the answer is always the same.
Multiplying by 1 doesn't change the shapes and colours I see, but trying to multiply by 0 wipes everything out in my mind.
31st May 1984 was a Thursday - I describe the different colours and textures I see for days of the week in one of my posts on this blog.
Best wishes,
Daniel
Wohoo--I finally got my copy by international shipping from Amazon today!
I love the design chosen for your cover of the book.
Hello Daniel I've just finished reading your book, and was very moved by it. Probably because I identify with quite alot of your story. I'm a gay man, a Christian, with a lifelong passion for foreign languages, and, last but not least, had my own version of isolation as a child (chronic asthmatic). Allowing the world to read about your journey out of that seems to me to have been a brave thing to do. It has inspired me to tell my own story, as a blog, and I know it's not an easy thing to do. So thanks for giving me the courage to do it.
I just finished reading 'Born on a Blue Day' today, about four days after receiving it in the mail. I greatly enjoyed the book, and after finishing discovered that my mind was swimming with ideas to the point that I felt a bit overwhelmed. I went out for a walk with my brother down a nature trail nearby, and I looked up at the clouds at one point (lots of small puffy ones, like popcorn rhythmically laid across the blue sky) and just stared, wondering what numbers you might see in them. I feel a tangible longing when I think about how you experience numbers, because I know that numbers are everywhere, like a universal language connecting all things, and I've never experienced numbers as much more than logic tools and symbols on paper. Many days, I do not experienced my own life with the clarity that you seem to experience numbers. Since realizing this, I am struggling to "wake up" and filter my senses less, to grasp the real beauty that surrounds and fills my daily life.
Learning about you and Kim Peek has really opened my eyes to the wonders that human beings are capable of, and added greatly to my desire to realize that potential in myself.
Excuse me for my rambling; as I said, I'm a bit overwhelmed by my own thoughts at the moment. I just wanted to express that your book has really inspired me. It will take a few days for me to process what I've read (or more accurately, process my resulting thoughts and emotions), and then I will begin reading your second book.
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