Jeremy got me into using a service called BookMooch, a used book trading service. I've found that it changes how I buy books. I don't have to want a book so badly to "mooch" it, since I know I'll be mooching several in a month.

I decided to collect time travel novels. I recently mooched and read Time and Again by Jack Finney. Finney's book introduced the idea of time travel by hypnosis, an idea borrowed by Richard Matheson in Bid Time Goodbye, which was the basis for the movie Somewhere in Time (The novel was renamed after the movie came out, so the link goes to the novel Somewhere in Time.). Finney explored his mechanic at greater lenght, though. I also wonder if the original Planet of the Apes's use of the arm of the Statue of Liberty as a measure of the passage of time may not have drawn inspiration from Finney.

I am currently reading The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I found a blog listing someone's suggested list of best time travel novels. The list was decent. But what struck me was that two commentors said that The Anubis Gates was their favorite time travel novel. I am quite impressed with it at this point. I had to mooch it from the UK, which cost two points rather than one. Right now I'm glad I did.

In the past, I have enjoyed H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, and Michael Crichton's Timeline.

What I like best is the immersion in another world, but with the ability of the characters to make mental comparisons between times. It's like you can share the surprise of history with someone else.

Some people read these stories for the paradox elements. I found that the idea that you cannot change the past, and will only cause the present to come about with all your strivings to be an interesting idea—the first time I ran into it. For me, that was this Twilight Zone episode. But if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. I was overjoyed when Back to the Future allowed changes to be made. I prefer that assumption. I like Ray Bradbury's story "A Sound of Thunder" (found in this collection) where one small change made in prehistory leads to a subtle but unusual change in the present.

What are my readers' favorites? And what do you like best about such books?

11:27 am Pacific Standard Time

[ posted by Rick Ritchie | 11 comments | Permalink ]