‘What I Want to Talk About’ Book Review

I was sent Pete Wharmby’s lovely book ‘What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life’ by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Pete is an Autistic writer, speaker, parent, teacher, tutor and advocate who has immersed himself in working to improve autistic awareness, acceptance and making the world a more suitable place for the neurodivergent community. Pete is most active on Twitter where he has over 70,000 followers.

More about the book:

‘This book isn’t a memoir. It is a love letter to the phenomenon of autistic hyperfixation.’

In What I Want to Talk About popular autism advocate Pete Wharmby takes readers on a journey through his special interests, illuminating the challenges of autistic experience along the way. Funny, revealing, celebratory and powerful in equal measure, this is a book that will resonate with many, and which should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand autism with more accuracy and empathy.

amazon.co.uk

My review:

I finished reading this book on December 31st, having read it over the Christmas holidays. It gave me such an insight into how Pete’s (and many other autistic people) rely on special interests to help make sense of the world.

Special interests can allow us such joy as they can be a form of escapism and calm in an overwhelming world. Pete talks about his own interests ranging from Lego, Minecraft, Warhammer, The Titanic and music genres to name a few and I found it fascinating to learn more about each and how each has helped Pete throughout different times in his life.

It made me really want to delve into my own special interests and reignited that sense of wanting to research everything about a specific topic! I would definitely recommend this book, it wasn’t too long a read (and the font size was nice and easy to read).

Buy the book here.

You can listen to my podcast episode with Pete below! Why not subscribe here too.