Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
Blurb for the back cover:
“one of my favorite books”
Daylight savings has thrown me off this week. It’s brighter later in the day; Darker in the morning. When you think about it, does it make sense to change your clocks by an hour? All this manipulation of time this past week reminded me of one of my favorite books, Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman.
The book itself is a collection of different ideas of how time would effect mankind. In one story time passes slower for things that are in motion. As a result we are shown a world where houses are on wheels and people move as fast as they can to live longer and retain their youth. In another, cause and effect no longer happen instead there is a world where effect precedes cause. My personal favorite scenario is the one where people are unable to remember their past and everyday they do everything for the first time. They travel home to a family they meet for the first time, have dinner for the first time, make love for the first time. In this world people carry around a book that tells them about what they have done, where they work and live. Then there are the people who throw away their book and refuse to have their lives defined by their past.
Like I said this is one of my favorite books. It’s a short novel that reads really quickly. You could start and finish it in a single afternoon. I highly recommend that you pick up this book.