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Have any members of wrongplanet read the book entitled The curious incident of the dog in the night-time ISBN 0-09-945676-1 by Mark Haddon.
If so what were your impressions/feelings on reading this book?

Aspioes rock..................................

I read it twice and actually did a first 20 pages
critique on it. It didn't fare well as a people
wanting to post on it, so I gave up even mentioning
it!

I liked it for it's ending and all truths come out.

I didn't like it's tooooooo! DSM-IV approach!
"not all autistics are alike" but will share similar
traits.

If felt he was LFA only because at 15 he was
a bit on the Mentally ret*d side as specified
in the DSM-IV. At 15 one is independently
minded, not so M.R dependent and programmably
responsive!

It was a good book eitherway!

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

I liked the book very much and could identify with Christopher in many aspects. I agree that the author exaggerated him somewhat, making him definitely more affected than I was at 15. Specifically:

1. I went to mainstream schools (although at 15 I was homeschooled).
2. I never got so overwhelmed in public as to lie down and scream (I did lie down on the floor a couple of times because of seizure-like episodes induced by anxiety/fear).
3. I did not panic seeing a multi-detail view, such as from a tall building or a moving train; in fact I would enjoy such a view intensely (although in the case of a tall building my fear of heights would make me panic).
4. At 15 I was quite used to public transport, and was moving around my 2-million hometown without any uneasiness; I also loved subway (but my first trip on my own outside of the city was at 21).
5. I did not have such a far-reaching good/bad day rule (like Christopher, I actually counted cars on my way to school, and got happy/unnerved depending on the count, but would usually forget the result before even entering the school building).
6. I do not have an eidetic memory (while I can remember that I saw 19 cows, I would certainly not be able to reliably recall their skin patterns). Moreover, for any type of information, my memory sometimes works, sometimes not (e.g. I can recall at will the PIN to Christopher's father's ATM card, but not my own ).
7. Some Christopher's traits, with which I can identify, worked somewhat differently for me (e.g. physiological reactions to emotions).
8. There were also some odd traits that I had, and Christopher did not, or had in a notably lesser extent.

Differences aside, I find Christopher to be very similarly minded. The book pretty well describes how my mind works (or rather how it worked when I was half my current age). Despite the book being written in a 1st person style, it gave me a 3rd person view on some of my past behaviors. I actually felt shame reading about some of Christopher adventures, such as a shocking scene when he meets his mother and rejects her hug. It seemed even more shocking when I realized that I did the same many times.

Relating to #6 from the above list, I just checked the book, and the number of cows Christopher saw on page 141 was indeed 19. Yay!