Einstein's Dreams

Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading..
Review: I really enjoyed this book, especially after I familiarized myself with Einstein's theories, for while interesting on its own, with the knowledge of the theory behind it it gains in richness. It was highly reminiscent of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (one has to wonder if Lightman read the book), another text that I would recommend wholeheartedly.

Rating:
Summary: Stirring, enlightening, profoundly affecting...
Review: I can't say enough about what this book did for my perception of time and its affect on interpersonal relationships and my view of the world. Achingly beautiful at times, the words curl around the brain, rearranging perspectives...quite profound in its simplicity of language. A book with a gorgeous silence...to be read slowly, as though you were dreaming it all. Very absorbing. I absolutely loved it.

Rating:
Summary: A WASTE OF TIME
Review: I was totally disappointed with this book.

Rating:
Summary: The most movingly beautiful prose I have ever read.
Review: An all too brief reverie on how time affects our lives. Easily among the most beautiful and lyrical prose ever written. Lightman may have the head of a physicist, but his soul is all poet. Read it again and again.

Rating:
Summary: As simple & human as Gilgamesh & complex as, well, Physics!
Review: Epic metaphysics for the mind (leaves you thinking about man and time). One of the best books on any subject I have ever read (I've owned for six months and I've already read it twice and not from the lack of anything else to read). Brought me closer to the reality and unreality of Einstein -- paradox is what this book is all about. Read it and then read it again -- it's different every time you read it -- amazing.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I never thought much about time until i read this book. Now I think about it all the time!!! This book is wonderful and everyone in the world should read it.

Rating:
Summary: The words spring to life from the page
Review: If you are looking for a mind-blowing plot line or a fantastic essay on time and the universe, this is not it. But if you want words to light up and dance for you, music to leap from the pages and swirl around you, rustling the papers on your desk, if you want the winds of time to leave sands from the deserts of Egypt in your hair as it moves past you, this is the book to read TODAY. A poet and scientist, Alan Lightman has created a magnificent creature in "Einstein's Dreams," one that needs only a thoughtful reader to flourish.

Rating:
Summary: A scientist's sensibility, lyrically beautiful
Review: i do not expect much from this book the time when i bought it back a couple of months ago in a bookstore, and actually i don't have any recommendation whatever. but i just keep on reading it after i begin the first page because i find it so beautiful and so touching. it is not only a book about Einstein, his dreams and time as seen in different perspectives, but also a great prose that comes from the deepest of a sentimental soul.

Rating:
Summary: A pocket full of emeralds
Review: Bought this book after reading the reviews at Amazon. Happy to say that it is as good as 'they say'. The beauty of the book is the insight it gives into our world and our time by describing a world subject to different time streams. Poetic, Life affirming and beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Read Einstein's Dreams for YOUR Life!
Review: I purchased and read this book after listening to NPR's Book of the Month Club in March 1998. I was driving from LA to San Diego and as soon as the radio show ended I pulled off the highway and went to 4 book stores before I found a copy. This book has impacted my life and reinforced the way I view the daily happenings around me. Lightman has constructed a wonderful book of fiction that reads like prose. Each chapter is truly a wonderful approximation of what Einstein's dreams clould have been as he toiled through his theories of time and space. It is important to note that I do not belive that Lightman wanted this book to read like a story. The beginning middle and end of a standard novel has no place in the concept of time as Einstein would have theorized. I also feel that Einstein's dreams (as told by Lightman) enable the non-scientific person come that much closer to understanding Einstein's theories. It also enables the reader to look at their individual enviornments with a more open understanding of their physical AND meta-physical worlds in which they live. I believe that the complexity of Einstein's theories is represented in the narrative prose in every chapter. I have purchased 17 copies of this book and no one who received it from me has been disappointed. (I still have more to buy) Open your eyes and your mind; everything doesn't have to appear as it seems!