This feels very out of place. I'm a technology/programming/video game/computer guy, so I feel like I'm required to give some explanation on why I'm writing a review of a book published in 1895.
Recently Laura and I bought a Kindle for Christmas. Laura is an english teacher and reads alot. So I thought it would be a good idea because, all of the books published before 1923 are in the public domain and free. So I expected she would be reading on it more than me, since the last book I read voluntarily was in the 7th grade (I think it was Goosebumps). But to my surprise I was wrong. I forgot how much fun it was to read and started my new found excitation for reading with a book I've always wanted to read.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was one of the first book to explore the idea of humans traveling through time with the use of a machine. Interestingly enough the book doesn't focus on the time machine mechanics much at all. In more recent moves about time travel, the way that the traveler goes through time is an interesting feature that is usually explored at least a little. In Back to the Future they used a car (an awesome one), in The Terminator they used futuristic technology (which also was awesome). But in The Time Machine it seems that the actual machine, isn't really an important part of the story, but rather it is a vehicle (see what I did there) to help tell the story.
So right away I noticed how easy of a read it was. Partially because there are so few characters. There really is only three characters important to the story. The Time Traveler, the person retelling the story that the Time Traveler told his story to, and Weena, a person from the future. Some of the language was a little difficult to understand, only because it was written over 100 years ago but still very readable.
So the book is about the Time Traveler going into the future to see where humanity is going. He goes really far into the future and finds that humans have split into two main species. A group of people who live underground, and do basically all the work. The other group of people live above ground and only eat fruit and are gentile higher class people. The people underground do all the work and take care of the people above ground like cattle, and eat them for food.
There's alot more stuff that happens, but the main point of the book (that I gathered anyway), is that that society is divided, between the haves and the have-nots, and given enough time the privileged people living in society would become useless to society. Having no meaningful skills, these worthless human beings serve the only purpose they can...to be eaten.
This feels like a very relevant message to today's society. We are glorifying people who are reality stars for being...reality stars. All they are, is entertaining on a level that people only find amusing because of their lack of talent. People just need to find something that interests them (something other than being a media whore) and devote some time in bettering them selves. Become a better person by donating time to charity, spend time learning a foreign language, or at the very least...read a book.
I'm glad I got around to reading again, and I hope I can find more time to read some more science and science fiction books. If you're interested in sci-fi and have some time, I recommend The Time Machine. It's a relatively short book, easy to read, and its FREE!
Recently Laura and I bought a Kindle for Christmas. Laura is an english teacher and reads alot. So I thought it would be a good idea because, all of the books published before 1923 are in the public domain and free. So I expected she would be reading on it more than me, since the last book I read voluntarily was in the 7th grade (I think it was Goosebumps). But to my surprise I was wrong. I forgot how much fun it was to read and started my new found excitation for reading with a book I've always wanted to read.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was one of the first book to explore the idea of humans traveling through time with the use of a machine. Interestingly enough the book doesn't focus on the time machine mechanics much at all. In more recent moves about time travel, the way that the traveler goes through time is an interesting feature that is usually explored at least a little. In Back to the Future they used a car (an awesome one), in The Terminator they used futuristic technology (which also was awesome). But in The Time Machine it seems that the actual machine, isn't really an important part of the story, but rather it is a vehicle (see what I did there) to help tell the story.
So right away I noticed how easy of a read it was. Partially because there are so few characters. There really is only three characters important to the story. The Time Traveler, the person retelling the story that the Time Traveler told his story to, and Weena, a person from the future. Some of the language was a little difficult to understand, only because it was written over 100 years ago but still very readable.
So the book is about the Time Traveler going into the future to see where humanity is going. He goes really far into the future and finds that humans have split into two main species. A group of people who live underground, and do basically all the work. The other group of people live above ground and only eat fruit and are gentile higher class people. The people underground do all the work and take care of the people above ground like cattle, and eat them for food.
There's alot more stuff that happens, but the main point of the book (that I gathered anyway), is that that society is divided, between the haves and the have-nots, and given enough time the privileged people living in society would become useless to society. Having no meaningful skills, these worthless human beings serve the only purpose they can...to be eaten.
This feels like a very relevant message to today's society. We are glorifying people who are reality stars for being...reality stars. All they are, is entertaining on a level that people only find amusing because of their lack of talent. People just need to find something that interests them (something other than being a media whore) and devote some time in bettering them selves. Become a better person by donating time to charity, spend time learning a foreign language, or at the very least...read a book.
I'm glad I got around to reading again, and I hope I can find more time to read some more science and science fiction books. If you're interested in sci-fi and have some time, I recommend The Time Machine. It's a relatively short book, easy to read, and its FREE!