Thursday, January 06, 2005
Amazing book
They say the internet is isolating and self-promoting. It certainly feeds on itself (that's called surfing, right?). In my case, it promotes other media - movies, books, etc. It cuts down on my encyclopedia usage, I'll admit, but it does send me to other resources on a regular basis.
Case in point: while searching for odd trivia, I found the book entitled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and just *had* to borrow it from the library. (Was he carrying her around on his head, or was he continually trying to hang her on a hook? I will report back when I find out.) On visiting the library (via their web site, of course) it turned out that the book was written by Dr. Oliver Sachs, the man who wrote the heartbreakingly sad Awakenings, which was made into an equally heartbreaking film of the same name. This piqued my curiosity further and one thing led to another until I ended up reserving five books from the psychology section. I was still finishing up Sue Grafton's latest (only eight more letters left in the alphabet. Bummer.), so I only just started reading the one written by an autistic woman, Temple Grandin (with a forward by Dr. Sachs).
OMIGOSH. This has to be one of the most fascinating books I've ever read in my entire life and I'm not even halfway through. It's called Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism. This woman, like many autistics, has plenty of intelligence. She just learns differently and experiences differently than others. What truly differentiates Ms. Grandin is her motivation to learn and grow and communicate and the fact that she is actually doing it - to the extent that she is finally learning how *we* think and how to write about her experiences so that we can understand it. Unbelievable. See for yourself! Not only that, but she has a public speaking career (I hope I can get a seat sometime) and has designed approximately one-third of the cattle- and hog-handling facilities in the entire country. Ms. Grandin's career achievements are amazing but I'm more impressed by her successes as a member of society and her ability to share the difficulties of autism from that perspective. It's like having space explain itself. Wow.
'night.
Case in point: while searching for odd trivia, I found the book entitled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and just *had* to borrow it from the library. (Was he carrying her around on his head, or was he continually trying to hang her on a hook? I will report back when I find out.) On visiting the library (via their web site, of course) it turned out that the book was written by Dr. Oliver Sachs, the man who wrote the heartbreakingly sad Awakenings, which was made into an equally heartbreaking film of the same name. This piqued my curiosity further and one thing led to another until I ended up reserving five books from the psychology section. I was still finishing up Sue Grafton's latest (only eight more letters left in the alphabet. Bummer.), so I only just started reading the one written by an autistic woman, Temple Grandin (with a forward by Dr. Sachs).
OMIGOSH. This has to be one of the most fascinating books I've ever read in my entire life and I'm not even halfway through. It's called Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism. This woman, like many autistics, has plenty of intelligence. She just learns differently and experiences differently than others. What truly differentiates Ms. Grandin is her motivation to learn and grow and communicate and the fact that she is actually doing it - to the extent that she is finally learning how *we* think and how to write about her experiences so that we can understand it. Unbelievable. See for yourself! Not only that, but she has a public speaking career (I hope I can get a seat sometime) and has designed approximately one-third of the cattle- and hog-handling facilities in the entire country. Ms. Grandin's career achievements are amazing but I'm more impressed by her successes as a member of society and her ability to share the difficulties of autism from that perspective. It's like having space explain itself. Wow.
'night.
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