Of Books and Time Traveling

When I read a book, I pretty much give myself into it. I am absorbed by what’s inside; as if I’m there witnessing everything first-hand. Although I see myself standing there not really the character itself but an observer; a silent and invisible observer who watches every move willed by my mind and created by my imagination.



I am currently reading The Time Traveller’s Wife (lots of typos and grammatical errors just like Twilight, ohmygodwhoaretheeditorsofthesebooksbuti’msorrybecausei’malsonotperfect). At one point in the book, the time traveller compares time travelling to playing a tape. Maybe I’ll explain it in a similar way. I’ll compare it to reading a book.



Let’s say time travelling is a reality God created. Your life is a book, or a series of books; you read it from start to finish. You cannot just jump at a page without even reading what happened before that. When I first read a book, now this has been a bad habit of mine ever since, I like leafing, flipping or just jumping at any page I like and read a few dialogues, paragraphs or even a few words. Sometimes, I’d look at the very end of the book just to know what’ll be the outcome of the whole story. Then I’d realize that I had read too much than what I should so I close the book and return to where I originally stopped and continue reading. This is why time travelling is bad. There’s no thrill if you already know what will happen before you got there. Even if you know what will happen next, you can’t do anything about it because it’s all been laid out there waiting for you to get to that page. If it says Dumbledore will die and Severus Snape will die and Harry and Ginny were to marry, then that’s that. When trying to recall a certain event of a book, that’s when you go back to previous pages and try to refresh your memory on what happened. Again, there’s no point in changing things because it has already happened. The only thing that would make you want to go back is to refresh your memory but you can’t do anything besides that. Now why can’t anyone change things? The time traveller says it has something to do with free will. Maybe that’s right, I don’t know. A good example would be the grandfather paradox wherein “a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's grandmother. As a result, one of the traveler's parents (and by extension the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time after all, which in turn implies the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveller would have been conceived allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather” according to Wikipedia. If you’ve read Rant by Chuck Palahniuk (which is another good read), this case would be explained pretty well. I don’t really want to explain time travel affects free will because it will come entirely from The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I want this entry to be my own thoughts about it but I guess it’s too late. So you better buy the book and read it before the movie comes out okay?



The old adage: Future is not set on stone, if you think about it, it only applies if time travelling and changing things beforehand were possible.
You’re in the present and you do something about that to make your future. Once your future is done, that’s the past, you cannot undo that.
Everything’s been all planned out beforehand, it isn’t random, everything’s done already, it’s already there just waiting for it to happen. If you can time travel, the only place and time you can travel is your own memory and your own future. I don’t know if that makes any sense because it’s a bit contradicting. That’s my take on fate and time travelling although I don’t pretty much believe anything I say. Hehe As to the book, *sigh* it’s really a good book. It makes you want to believe in soulmates all over again. It’s a bit long and the letters are so small that it’s taking me hours just to finish a chapter (blame it on my low eye span) but it’s good and poignant. At first I was trying so hard to look for flaws of the storyline, because the time traveller goes back and forth in time and there are many dates presented, but I couldn’t find any which means the author has given much thought about the story. There are few French sentences so get those French-English dictionaries put to good use. It’d be nice if one could time travel… or not. Guess you just have to put up with my caprices.



I’m not one to give reviews. I’m none the wiser about these stuff. Let’s leave it to the professionals. All I can say is that you have to read it.



Well so much for books, I only made a point about time travelling.



Well that’s my opinion, what’s yours?

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