When you want to read a book in one sitting, this should be your choice. ( )

What a gem of a book!! I am stealing the description of one of the reviewers because it is so apropos....playful. Alan Lightman, an MIT physicist, plays with the reader's conceptions of time. Time moves backwards, time starts and stops, time is a sense. All of this stemming from Einstein's development of his theory of relativity. It is not a long book, but beware....you will want to take time to savor it! ( )

I really thought this was a silly book. Maybe I'm just to dumb. ( )

This is a tiny little book, but it was a wonderful read. The entire thing is littered with gems - I'll be giving this book to friends for years to come. ( )

A fantasy, in a way, but a creative speculation about dreamtime and creativity relating to physics, Einstein, and theories of the universe. ( )

What first surprised me is how small the book is. It's about the size of my hand. And I loved it!

It's a bit hard to describe this type of book. Is it fiction or philosophy or both?

Here we go. The book starts out with young Einstein hunched over his patent office desk early one morning in Bern, Switzerland. It's 1905 and he's been working on his theory of relativity. And while he's working away in the wee hours, he falls asleep. And what proceeds are a series of short stories, all taking place in the town of Bern, that each describe a "what if" scenario about time. Some are thought provoking and some are just plain funny. For instance, I love the one where time slows down the higher you go in the atmosphere so people build their houses and live as high as possible. Even on the highest mountaintop, they still put their houses on stilts so they can have as much time as possible. Or the one where time is slower when you are in motion so people race around to have more time (hmmm...sounds like New York City).

It's pretty fascinating, when you think about it, that our perception of time influences how we live. For instance, would your life change if the world were to end tomorrow? Would your life change if time was circular and you already knew all the outcomes of all your choices?

So while it's a small short book, spend the time to savor each chapter. ( )

Invisible Cities plus SCIENCE. Therefore, very good. Excellent for those who know Einstein or those who enjoy a spectacular bit of writing. For all the little time we spend outside of Einstein's head in typical novel form, it's an incredible characterization of him. Also, it takes barely a few hours to read. So: an excellent way to spend your time. ( )

Loved it. Amazing story!

I've read through about a dozen reviews so far and I'm rather surprised that no one seems to have gone beyond the obvious discussion of this book. We all see that these are interesting vignettes about how time might behave in different realities. But beyond that, these are vignettes about how we live. Take, for example, the vignette about the world where you can gain time by moving faster and faster. Because time is money, businesses fly about the town on wheels, powered by huge engines. Inside the office building, desks zip around each floor. The faster the workers move, the greater their productivity. There is one problem though, that of perception of the velocity of others. And sometimes a worker will become so upset by his perception that others are moving faster than he is, he will stop moving at all. He will retire to his home, pull down the shades and live within his family. Live a simple, content life without all the rushing about. This is a pretty clear metaphor for the increasing speed at which we live, and those who reject the need to live in that manner.

Some vignettes are simple to interpret -- the world where time moves more and more slowly until, as you get to the center of the town, it almost stops. People go there to preserve a childhood, a love, their lives. A kiss can be nearly infinite. Children grow more slowly than redwoods, and never lose their innocence. Some are more difficult. But each one carries some deeper meaning about human life, and how we choose to live it. And the narrative of Einstein as a patent clerk echoes those ideas, as you watch the choices he's made.

This book isn't simply about bringing together science and literature, it's about science and philosophy, science and human nature. It's about how each of us lives so differently, we might all be living in a different temporal reality. Quite simply, it's a wonderful book, that will make you think, and stay with you for a long time. Highly recommended. ( )

After going to the trouble of importing a copy of this book from America (as it seems to be hard to obtain outside of the US), I was rather disappointed - and perhaps a little clearer as to why its not readily available in the UK!

This book contains a series of dreams of imaginary worlds with a very different conception of time. Each chapter then is a thought experiment - but what I would have liked to see is some theme or character or reason why I should be carried through the thought experiments. There was no binding theme, and thus the book could better have been reduced to a list: Imagine a world where time is like X, Imagine a world where time is like Y and so on.

Maybe a poem on time would have been better than a whole book here.

It was not totally uninteresting, but neither did I feel it greatly profound. reading about Einstein in depth makes you more aware of the profound nature of time. reading popular physics books like "The Elegant Universe" likewise. ( )

After reading and enjoying Calvino's Invisible Cities, Einstein's Dreams was very disappointing. The format of the two books are almost identical. There is an overarching theme explored in a series of mini chapters, all tied together by interludes where a sort of plot progresses.

With Einstein's Dreams the theme is time, and the mini-chapters imagine worlds in which time behaves differently from what we are used to. In one chapter people randomly end up in the past; in another time is frozen in particular parts of the world; in a third different cities have their own rates of time. From these myriad premises Lightman imagines how the world would work and how people would behave when dealing with these different types of time.

His impressions were very hit or miss for me. A few I found to be insightful and poetic, but for a good majority of the time I was hung up on logical holes or what I felt was a tedious prose style. Lightman has apparently abolished the conjunction, and he has a great love of lists, so much so that one chapter is nothing but a giant list meant to illustrate time as disconnected and nothing but a series of snapshot like moments. Unlike Calvino's Cities, which became more interesting the more I thought of them, I found that the more time I spent thinking of Lightman's different worlds of time the less they made sense.

Ultimately I think that there are great ideas in Einstein's Dreams, but neither they, nor Lightman's style, were enough to fill 140 pages of this book. ( )

One of those books whose ideas stay with you long after you finish it, bubbling up from your subconscious at random times. A fabulous read. ( )

This is not a theoretical book packed with equations, in fact it’s a fascinating novel that imagines the dreams that Einstein may have had during 1905 whilst he worked to develop his general theory of relativity.

It is a short book, written in 30 or so brief chapters, each of which views time through perspectives of different worlds and how these affect the lives of people within these worlds.
There are worlds where time exists only in the present, with no future or past, worlds where time stands still, or is perceived differently by each individual. Worlds where time is never ending and lives go on for ever.

Though woven together loosely around a period in Einstein’s life, the chapters each stretch our perception of what time is and our reaction to it, and in doing so our understanding of change, and the paradoxes that emerge. For example when our lives are infinitely long, there is time to do everything, to live every life we can imagine. For some this means there is no incentive to do anything, there will always be tomorrow. For others it is the invitation to fill every moment with new experience.

This is an easily read book, but one that will provoke your thinking and may leave a lasting impression. It teaches about time, but also about how our thinking can become locked in one mode and become blind to the many ways to see and understand a situation.

I suspect that it is a book that I will return to, both to resample the ideas that it presents, and the lesson it carries of how complex ideas can be very effectively conveyed through thought provoking stories.

If you want to stretch your thinking and explore what might grow in the new space created, I highly recommend this book. ( )

A series of vignettes, each in a different sense of time. Nothing tied the stories together, so I never really cared about the characters. There are 3 or 4 interludes in which the REAL Einstein mopes about, presumably to remind us that these vignettes are his dreams?

The premise is good - this book could have been AMAZING -- judging by the ratings, a lot of people already feel that it is. I just don't get that. ( )

This book was originally published in 1993, and I read in 1997, and it's great! In 140 pages (I think the hardcover was 176 pages), he manages to look at time in some twenty different ways. This book will bend your brain every possible way you can think of. I read it in two hours and was entranced. ( )

Brief little speculations about different ways that time could possibly be. E.g., it might go backward, it might split off into different branches every microsecond, it might flow at different rates in different places. Lightman treats these not as theories of physics (some are overtly fantastic anyway) but as settings for human life. E.g., what would life be like if time flowed at different rates in different places? Etc.

The unifying structure is that these are all dreams Einstein has as he is trying to develop his new theory of time back in the early 20th century.

Despite the subtitle "a novel" this is not a novel. One, because it is not nearly long enough, and two, because the structure makes each chapter its own self-contained universe (literally). In a novel, in contrast, we have one substantial story in which there is at least one character who undergoes significant change. That too is lacking here.

In the hands of Borges one or two of these little pieces would have been stunning, I think. In Lightman's hands they're mildly diverting, but not great, although it does kind of grow on you as you read. Overall there's nothing really wrong with it but nothing particularly captivating about it. ( )

A beautiful short novel about Einstein in 1905 and the many different ways that time could exist, or that we could experience it. Best read in small pieces. ( )

What a surprise!!!! This short book was recommended to me and I am happy to recommend it to others.

The story follows Alber Einstein during his days inn the patent office while his ideas for the theory of relativity gel. Each chapter concerns a dream had by Einstein which concerns some aspect of time and what would happen if that aspect of time were to change. This setting allows the author to commet on the human condition and how individual choice affects the path of each persons life. This story will keep you thinking about your own choices in life long after you've finished reading it.

Five bones!!!!! ( )

for me changed the way i see things and life ( )

I picked this up in an airport bookstore because it was small, obviously a quick read, and seemingly light enough to consume while traveling. Indeed, it can be read in a single sitting, or with numerous interruptions like a magazine; but it turned out to be much more that just a wanderer’s diversion.This short novel is a wonderful series of fantasies that on one level aspire to illustrate Einstein’s thoughts regarding time while they are still in a formative, dream-like state. Each vignette serves as an escape from the real world, not unlike Randolph Carter’s Dream-Quest. We get a sense of both environments; one actual, the other dreamlike, consistent in its surreality but constantly changing. We prefer the second(s). Holds up well to repeated readings. Poetic. ( )

This book explores the concept of time and how people are affected by our concept of time. Each chapter conjures up a scenario of what life would be like if our concept of time was different. In the end, you come to realize how intertwined time is with the human experience. Each chapter is a beautifully written vignette of what it means to be human. ( )

I love this book, all of the stories are grouped together under one catergory, but each one is very unique. it was a fun read, makes you think.. in a good way.

In this beautiful novel, time manifests itself in many forms in Einstein's Dream. Couple of nice things i liked about this book - brevity and readability. It is difficult to convey heavy concepts in brief/readable chapters. Author has done an excellent job. Also i liked the philosophical stream that flows through this book.