Fun, easy reading book about time travel, search for better times and places, and magic. Didn't think I'd like it. Looked at it for a specific story but I read the entire book. ( )

12 quirky time travel stories -- light, humorous, nostalgic, and predictable -- the modern 50s-60s man yearning for a golden age prior to WWI --

My favorites: "Second Chance" where life yearns for itself through the soul of a restored car; "The Third Level" where NY's Grand Central Station has a time-warping 3rd floor and where the man of science, the psychiatrist, has the last laugh about superstition; "Such Interesting Neighbors" where mankind evaporates when everyone is on a loop back to the past; "The Coin Collector" despite its clunky, outrageous sexism because of the coin gimmick; "Of Missing Persons" where the opportunity of a lifetime comes only once and one must be bold to claim it; "I'm Scared" where Finney repeats what seems to be his favorite theme of people desperate to escape the time in which they are locked ... "Yes, there is a craving in the world like a thirst, a terrible mass pressure that you can almost feel, of millions of minds struggling against the barriers of time. I am utterly convinced that this terrible mass pressure of millions of minds is already, slightly but definitely affecting time itself." (163)

The stories in this book are not only delightful in and of themselves, but since Finney was writing them about 50 years ago they provide a sort of double time-travel experience as you get the feel of what he sees as modern day while you take the time travel adventures he creates for your delight. ( )

Have you ever been so bored at home alone that you decide to build a hot air balloon and fly over your neighborhood in the middle of the night? What about those strange neighbors next door with there marvelous new inventions and strange talk of what it will be like in the future? Did you ever walk down the street and swear you saw a trolley car that hadn’t run in town for years? These are just some of the stories from Jack Finney’s short story collection About Time.

The stories are well crafted and easy to read. Some are a little predictable and some are filled with overwhelming nostalgia for small town life at the turn of the last century. Think the Twilight Zone episode “A Stop at Willoughby.” ( )

A rather quaint collection of stories on the concept of time. Enjoyable read, but not especially engrossing. ( )