Alyce from At Home With Books features one of her favorite reads each Thursday and this week my pick is…

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

From the back cover: When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700 — and everything had changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings — unearth their secret and then return to his own time — until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.

My thoughts: I read The Time Machine in 8th or 9th grade and it was my first brush with science fiction. I was fascinated by the idea of time travel and the ability to experience and observe new worlds. Wouldn’t it be amazing to witness firsthand the use of fire and tools by early humans, see dinosaurs roaming vast plains, experience the Ice Age, see humans evolve into what we are today, observe amazing creatures of the sea, see the building of the pyramids, and watch the Great Wall of China emerge stone by stone? Maybe this is why I have developed such a love of historical fiction — it captures a time and place in history and brings it to life.

I’ve read this book several times since my first initial bit of enthusiasm and have liked and enjoyed it each time finding new parts to be excited about. Our version is a bit dog-eared and passages are underlined but it only means that it’s well loved. I also love the cover art work of our little Bantam Classic book. It’s very Salvador Dali-esque. I can’t profess to be a big Dali fan, he creeps me out way too much for me to actually enjoy his work, but I like the starkness of the paining and of course the clock in the background gives it just that little reminder of what you are in for. According to the inside cover, the painting is Gentleman in a Railway Carriage by James Jacques Joseph Tissot.