Though I haven’t been able to write lately due to time constraints, I was able to read a “book”. I put book in quotes because I read it online at Project Gutenberg. The book I read was The Time Machine written by H. G. Wells. First of all, how cool is something like Project Gutenberg? What a great time we live in where we can read classic works for free whenever we choose? We don’t even have to walk to the library! It is amazing how much information we truly have at our fingertips via the Internet. Thanks Al Gore 
.
As far as The Time Machine goes, it was an interesting story. The novel was published in 1895, which is amazing to me. In the story, the protagonist, referred to only as The Time Traveller, invents a time machine and visits the distant future (802,701 A.D.). According to Wikipedia, “the novel is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively”. Where would Science Fiction be without this?
The story is truly timeless (no pun intended). This could have been written today as easily as in 1895. I recommend The Time Machine to anyone who has an interest in Science Fiction, Time Travel, or just good stories.
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The Time Machine made a huge impression on me when I read it as a teenager. Ever since I have been interested in time travel and Science Fiction. If you like a good time travel story then Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis are also excellent – although H. G. Wells is in a class all of his own.
Thanks for the suggestions Helen. I will check them out. According to Wikipedia, Connie is one of the most acclaimed s.f. writers of the 80’s and 90’s and I have never heard of her!
I discovered her at the beginning of 2005 when I read Doomsday Book, which was recommended to me by a friend. I’ve read almost everything by her since then. She is not your classic science fiction author, writing about spaceships and aliens. She deals more with time travel and paranormal themes. Another excellent book by her is Passage, which is about near-death experiences interwoven with the story of the Titanic. I was astonished by this book. I usually hate books about death and the afterlife. They are so often either morbid or ridiculously sentimental, but Passage is neither, although it is very dark. Connie Willis also breaks what I considered to be a major “rule” of writing (I won’t be a spoiler and say exactly what, you will see if you read it). She’s an author who makes me think. I can’t wait till her next book comes out!
I have to echo Helen’s sentiments about “The Time Machine”. It made quite an
impression on me as a teenager many years ago. Unfortunately, neither of the
movies that were made of the same title quite did the original the justice it
deserved (just my opinion).
I highly recommend a book named “The Space Machine” written in 1975 by
Christopher Priest. I suspect it is out of print, but I read the book when it was
new and was floored. In a nutshell, it brings together both “War of the Worlds”
and “The Time Machine” in what I thought was a contemporary novel that
remained faithful to both original texts upon which it is based.
There is another book named “Morlock Night”, based on those same two H.G.
Wells classics, and would be better used to train puppies or wrap fish. It is a
horrible book. It is to science fiction books what “Plan Nine From Outer Space”
was to science fiction movies, only P9 was actually so bad it was good!
Morlock Night is just rotten…so rotten it’s…just rotten.
Thanks for stopping by Bob. I will have to check that book out (The Space Machine, not Morlock Night). I haven’t seen the “The Time Machine” movies, and will probably keep it that way.