Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman

There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float mid-swing. Dogs raise their muzzles in silent howls. Pedestrians are frozen on the dusty streets, their legs cocked as if held by strings. The aromas of dates, mangoes, coriander, cumin are suspended in space.

As a traveler approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly. His heartbeats grow farther apart, his breathing slackens, his temperature drops, his thoughts diminish, until he reaches dead center and stops. For this is the center of time. From this place, time travels outward in concentric circles - at rest at the center, slowly picking up speed at greater diameters.

Who would make pilgrimage to the center of time? Parents with children, an lovers.

The perfect book for a rainy afternoon. This short book is a wonderful combination of fun and stimulation. Taking Einstein's theory of relativity, specifically his concepts on time, the author imagines dreams that may have run through the great thinker's mind. Each short chapter, typically 3-5 pages, imagines a different world where time is not as we experience it. For example, time may flow backwards, unevenly, slowly, quickly, etcetera.

It wouldn't too difficult to come up with ideas for different structures of time, but what the author has expertly done is to create fun, creative, and intriguing views on how these time concepts may function. The writing is superb, each chapter reading like a prose poem. A beautiful book which well deserved to be the best seller it was.