Thinking in Numbers

  • Author Daniel Tammet
  • Narrator Daniel Tammet
  • Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
  • Run Time 9 hours and 18 minutes
  • Format Audio
  • Genre Science: general issues.
Get in the xigxag app
Already purchased

Click to open directly in the xigxag app.

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book. Pre-order Buy Now £{{ price }} Send as a gift

Listen to a sample

What to expect

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

Critics Review

Thinking in Numbers is unprecedented: a pitch-perfect duet between mathematics and literature … Mathematics, Tammet says, is illimitable. It is a language through which the human imagination expresses itself. Presumably this means mathematics has, or deserves, a literature. In Tammet, it already has a laureate.

New Scientist

A collection of essays on subjects as diverse as Shakespeare and Tolstoy, a rumination on snow and another on chess, as well as a fantastically nuanced piece about his mother. It is a collection which showcases Tammet’s extraordinary talent . . . a writer of unique capabilities.

Scotsman Magazine

An interesting and often beautiful approach: Tammet writes well… and his love of numbers shines from the page… Tammet’s discussion of big numbers is fascinating.

Daily Telegraph

Tammet’s choice of subjects is personal, and wonderfully eclectic… What lifts Tammet’s entertaining collection above the ordinary are the often surprising links that he sees, explores and explains.

Sunday Telegraph

Explores the ‘what if’ of maths and links it with literature and life. He is an exhilarating thinker, an exciting writer, and looks at the world with an eclectic, quizzical eye.

Saga Magazine

Tammet is an accomplished writer with a prose style akin to a warm embrace… scintillating … enlightens and entertains in (approximately) equal measure.

Daily Express

When he talks about his own extreme skills, such as his feat of pi memorisation, the book comes alive.

BBC Focus

Daniel Tammet’s unique take on the world will prove that life – not just classroom maths – is more than just a numbers game.

Gay Times

As fluid with words as with numbers, his essays are artfully constructed: intriguing openings to entice us; interesting snippets of history; accessible but unpatronising tones; neat endings.

Independent

In Tammet’s mind, literature, art and maths are united. For him, maths’ real-life applications are not merely tax returns and restaurant bills, but the storytelling of an infinite subject and the reasoning behind our daily existence.

The Huffington Post

Thinking in Numbers is a mind-expanding, kinetic aesthetic experience. My mind shot off the page, spurred to see universal patterns very much alive in everything from the natural world we share to how imagery and metaphor occur in my own creative process. Tammet’s poetic mathematics are beautiful guideposts for thinking about life and even love. As I read, I found myself saying, ‘Yes, this is true, and this is true, and this is so true…’

Amy Tan

Always informative, always entertaining, Daniel Tammet never loses his respect for the mystery of the universe of number.

JM Coetzee

Born on a Blue Day introduced us to the extraordinary phenomenon of Daniel Tammet, and Thinking in Numbers enlarges one’s wonder at Tammet’s mind and his all-embracing vision of the world as grounded in numbers.

Oliver Sacks, MD

About xigxag

Enjoy the best audiobooks on xigxag, an innovative, user-friendly audiobook platform that makes it easy to find, purchase, and enjoy your favorite books in audio format. xigxag’s flexible pricing model offers bestselling audiobooks for less – affordable prices and the best audiobook deals with no subscription required.  Give the perfect gift with our audiobook gift cards and in-app audiobook gifting options.

 

xigxag’s commitment to sustainability and ethical practices ensures a guilt-free listening experience from an exceptional digital book platform – an exciting alternative to big tech.  Enjoy audiobooks from the only B Corp certified UK audiobook service and a leader in audiobook innovation.

 

Search effortlessly, read honest audiobook reviews evaluating both the book and the narration, and discover hidden gems.  Download or stream top audiobook titles anytime, anywhere and get the best possible listening experience on the UK’s best independent audiobook app.  Experience the future of audiobooks today.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.