Time and Again buddy read

[Sara, Old School Classics]

It was. In all the time I lived near D.C., I was only able to go up once and that was my first trip there. I wonder if you can go in now. I'll have to google and see.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Nope, closed permanently. So, I really do possess a rare memory, don't I. I suppose I always thought when the restoration was done the stairs would reopen. It's a shame. It was worth the climb. Of course, I was very young then. I wouldn't be able to do it now, even if they would let me.

[Connie]

Anne wrote: "I never knew until reading this book that NYC only had the arm of the statue for several years. After that the full statue was set up on a little island which if off of the island of Manhattan. One..."

I didn't know that bit of history either, Anne. (view spoiler)[ They entered the arm of the statue in 1882 in the city, and exited the completed statue in 1970, and took the ferry back to Manhattan. I liked the way that scene was written. (hide spoiler)]

[Anne]

Connie, exactly! That was very cool.

[Lori]

I’m through Chapter 19 and I want to keep reading so badly but today is my birthday and I’m expecting company. The pace is definitely much quicker and the events are unfolding in unexpected ways. I definitely want to race to the end and the potential endings will no doubt leave me scatterbrained today! lol!

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Happy Birthday, Lori!!!! I know how you want to just keep going from here, but it will be there when your big day is done and you will have relished it a bit longer than I was able to.

Have cake!

[Anne]

Lori wrote: "I’m through Chapter 19 and I want to keep reading so badly but today is my birthday and I’m expecting company. The pace is definitely much quicker and the events are unfolding in unexpected ways. I..."

Happy Birthday, Lori! Meditate yourself back into the present day (Right, who wants to do that?) and enjoy your birthday with company and cake. I look forward to your thoughts once you've finished the book.

[Kathleen]

Anne wrote: "Sara wrote: "I'm a little confused and hoping someone can explain this to me. Chapter 10 They follow their man and he catches the cab, then they see the imprint of the tombstone. But, what does it ..."

Okay, I am through chapter 10 now, and had the same question Sara did, so appreciate knowing I should just relax and keep reading!

I am very intrigued by how they noticed (view spoiler)[the faces being different. I've looked at old photos and thought the same thing. Maybe it's an innocence that generations of living has worn down. (hide spoiler)]

I find myself on some level completely believing in the possibility of this, which makes it more fun than I expected for this type of story!

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I was also able to just sink into and believe in it, which is essential to enjoying this kind of story. Nothing is worse than, while you are reading, continually saying to yourself "this could never ever happen".

your spoiler (view spoiler)[I also find there is a quality to old photographs that makes the seem to know something I don't or be kinder and more trusting. It is definitely a real element that the author wisely picked up upon and knew we would all recognize. I love old photography and have spent many hours of my own life staring at theirs. (hide spoiler)]

[Anne]

(view spoiler)[..It's funny about old photos because I think they tended to be staged and generally people didn't smile, unlike today or even going back one generation or even 2. I used to stare at old photos of my grandparents from England, because I had never met them and I was trying to figure out something about their personalities compared to the stories I'd heard. . (hide spoiler)]

[Sara, Old School Classics]

You know smiling in photographs was almost impossible, since the person had to hold the pose without moving for such a long time. Holding still with a smile is much more difficult than holding still with just an expressionless face. But, I also think having a photograph taken was an unusual and serious event and people viewed it that way. It might have been done only once in a lifetime. No photographer was asking them to "say cheese" and that is for sure.

[Anne]

Sara wrote: "You know smiling in photographs was almost impossible, since the person had to hold the pose without moving for such a long time. Holding still with a smile is much more difficult than holding stil..."

Yes, exactly, Sara.. The exposure time didn't allow for true smiles or anything spontaneous. There were quite a few pictures of my grandparents but for many it was only for very special events.

This whole book, as I mentioned previously, is really obsessed with photos, i.e. capturing a time in the past. It did it really well.

Thank you, Sara, for suggesting this book as our buddy read. I would never have discovered it otherwise, and it was such a treat!

[Connie]

The photographs and the illustrations made it seem like Simon was really in 1882 so we did not have that element of disbelief.

Happy Birthday, Lori!

[Candi]

Happy Birthday, Lori!

I've read through Chapter 13 now. It's easy to fall into the time travel of this. Those kind of stories can go either way, so I'm pleased as well! I had to laugh at Sara's comment about no photographer using the expression 'say cheese' back in those days! :D Now I'm curious when this became a thing to say during a photo session ;D

[Ian]

Candi wrote: "Now I'm curious when this became a thing to say during a photo session ..."

"Say Cheese" has a Wikipedia article, which unfortunately is short on dates (it does have a long list of equivalent expressions in other languages, which is pretty interesting).

The phrase is presumably of twentieth century, or very late nineteenth century, origin, since the article says that in the late nineteenth century the equivalent word, intended to produce the small mouth then considered proper for photographs, was "prunes."

Although it doesn't say so, I suspect that the expectation of a solemn face in photographs started very early, when the subject had to hold a position for a considerable length of time. There may have been a cultural lag when faster photographic processes came in -- I'm vague on the chronology.

[Candi]

Ian, thanks for the information! Now I had a chuckle about the 'prunes'!

[Lori]

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!!

I have finished reading!: (view spoiler)[. This must be considered a sci-fi classic! The details of old New York are rich and definitely worth the effort Finney put into his research.

The fire was absolutely sci-if thriller reading at its best. I was holding my breath and didn’t even hear my phone ring, lol!

I thought there was just a touch of Dickens’ social commentary when Si was talking to the driver who earned $1.90 per day to support his family. Makes me grateful to enjoy things easily taken for granted, the least of which is the invention of the seat heater in my car.

Unexpected twists kept me enthralled up to the very end. I quit guessing and just enjoyed the ride after a while. I loved that time travel was achieved by the imagination and not a machine or some other device.

A marvelous book and a real treat, thank you, Sara! (hide spoiler)]

[Lori]

Anne and Sara: I enjoyed the conversation about old photographs very much. I stare at them too whenever I see them. Antique stores, Cracker Barrel, houses of friends and relatives...they intrigue me. Also, thanks for the insight on the lack of smiles in the old days. Makes perfect sense!

[Anne]

Lori wrote: "Anne and Sara: I enjoyed the conversation about old photographs very much. I stare at them too whenever I see them. Antique stores, Cracker Barrel, houses of friends and relatives...they intrigue m..."

I enjoyed the conversation as well. There is something captivating about old pictures which take you back in time vs. looking at modern pictures. So glad you loved the book. So did I. Sara did a great job choosing this for our buddy read.

[Sara, Old School Classics]

I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the book so much (including ME).

The book pointed up quite accurately all the things that make the past a harder place to live. And yet, (view spoiler)[Si chooses to live there, perhaps because the things we have gained in our world are not worth the things we have lost. I know, for myself, that if I could rewind time back to the 1950-1960s, I would do it. I lived there and we didn't miss what we didn't have, but we had a lot of things we are not ever going to have again, and our children have lost things that are irreplaceable. Ah, but I was young and youth is almost always a better state of being.

As for the photographs, they have long been an obsession of mine. I went to an estate sale and bought a box of old photos of people I did not know. My granddaughter thought that was "mental" and laughed at me. But they were daguerreotypes and tin types and very interesting. I got rid of them when we moved and it seriously broke my heart to do so. (hide spoiler)]

[Anne]

Sara wrote: "I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the book so much (including ME).

The book pointed up quite accurately all the things that make the past a harder place to live. And yet, Si chooses to live there, per..."

Sara, what you wrote about going back to the 1950s-1960s is so moving. I would love to go back to an earlier time. I've often thought that, well before reading this book. With what is going on in our world now it is so enticing to think of going back to a better time.
Funny enough, the book I read right after this one takes place in the 18203-18403. If you read that you would not think that life was better back then, particularly for women. Si, not being a woman could easily slide into life in the 1880s. Anyway, Time and Again wasn't about those issues and it's supposed to be a fun read, though it did deal with issues like those of money and how badly the poor were treated.

Sara, you really are crazy about old photos. I'm sorry you had to leave them behind with most of your books.

[Franky]

I hate when work gets in the way of reading. I've been dying to finish this book and was so close but work has been keeping busy. I finally finished the book last night and loved it. I love how it finishes with some conclusiveness yet also opens the door for the sequel. I just love how Finney details everything going on through Si's experience. It's like you are traveling in time with him. Reminds me a bit of my first experience as a teenager watching Back to the Future (one of my favorite films to this day) at the movies and going back in time with Marty McFly. Really just being transported back to this time and place and it really captures this kind of magic. Anyhow, sorry I haven't been able to keep up with the comments lately, but this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Thanks for pointing this one out and I'm definitely going to buy book #2.

[Candi]

I've been suffering from the same misfortune lately! Work and other hectic life stuff has prevented me from reading as much as usual this past month. I just finished this on a car ride to visit my son at college this past weekend. I was finally able to sit down and read for a larger chunk of time. I loved the detailed descriptions of the city and could easily imagine both the old versus newer settings. It became an exciting, fast-paced story! I was particularly fascinated with the references to Charles Guiteau. A few years ago I read Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President so whenever his name popped up I felt like raising my hand and saying "I know who he was!!" :D

Franky - I loved the Back to the Future movies, and I can relate to how you felt while reading this in comparison to watching those films.

There were a couple of surprises in this book that appealed to me and I'm happy to have finally read this :)

[Sara, Old School Classics]

Franky and Candi, I'm glad you were both able to finish and enjoyed it in the end.

Franky, the critiques of the follow up were pretty harsh, so brace yourself for it not living up to this one.

Candi, I was smiling about knowing Guiteau, for the same reason.

[Kathleen]

I had to set this aside for a bit, but once I got back into it the pages flew! Thanks Sara and everyone for suggesting this. I'd never heard of it, and am so happy to have read it.

I'm with you, Sara--I would go back in a heartbeat. We have made great strides in some areas, but oh, there is so much I miss! So this book really appealed to my nostalgic side, and it was very satisfying that Si decided to stay in the past.

Thanks, all!