38 pages • 1 hour read
Daniel TammetA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The author describes numbers in many unconventional ways. What descriptors do you find the most interesting or unfamiliar? How do numbers function in your own life, and how do they function in the author’s life?
At one point in the book, Tammet explains that “we all rely on synesthesia to a greater or lesser degree” (164). He talks about the possible development of languages and words that somehow intrinsically or emotionally related to what they described. Are there certain words, phrases, or letter sounds that illicit strong mental images in your mind? What are some words or letter sequences that you like the sound of? What are some that you don’t? Do you think it is valuable to think about our emotional reactions to language? Why or why not?
The author ruminates on various types of relationships in the book. He has different relationships with numbers, his family members, and his peers, for example. What do you think was the most valuable relationship he had during his childhood? What was the easiest relationship to forge? What was the hardest? How did his relationships change most fundamentally from his childhood to his adulthood?
What surprised you most about Daniel Tammet’s story? Were there any challenges or triumphs that you found particularly compelling, moving, or inspirational?
Tammet talks about routines and communication strategies that he and Neil established to maintain a functional relationship. What are some of the patterns and strategies the two have developed? What parts of the relationship seem to come easier, and what parts require the most work and patience?
The author grew up in a large family. What were the challenges that came from having so many siblings? What were the benefits? Tammet’s parents struggled financially. How did their economic circumstances impact the family, and impact Daniel, specifically?
Why were the author’s childhood seizures important in his life? What is the ongoing importance of epilepsy in his life?
The author talks about creating his own language, Mänti. If you were going to create a language of your own, where would you start? After having read about some language science in this memoir, are there certain patterns of letters, sounds, grammar, or words that you would use?
The final few chapters of the book discuss the author’s public pursuits that brought him wider recognition and also more confidence within himself. What did the author gain from his recitation of pi, his experiences traveling in the United States and to Iceland for the television documentary, and his short visit to New York to appear on the Late Show? Discuss each example.
At the very end of the book, Tammet reveals that he is a Christian. What aspects of the religion resonate most with him? What role does his religion play in his life? Why does he suspect the reader might be surprised to learn that he believes in God?