When I was in high school (1990-1994) I purchased a small softcover
book from a Waldenbook store which contained short stores about what
life would be like if time flowed differently; ie. backwards, or
people only remember a single day, or people can stay in a evening
they like as long as they like.  What was the title of the book?  I
loaned my copy, and I desperately want it back.  I believe the cover
was dark, and it was squarer than a trade paperback.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 01 Nov 2002 14:48 PST

Do these sound like the names of the stories in your book?

The Man Who Saw Too Late
Slow Tuesday Night
Saltzman's Madness 
Backtracked 
Man in His Time
Tattered Stars, Tarnished Bars 
The Time Merchant 
The Man Who Never Grew Young

If so, I can identify the book and can tell you where to purchase a used copy.

---

Clarification of Question by caecias-ga on 01 Nov 2002 14:54 PST

I'm not sure.  They were more like unrelated chapters than short
stories with names.  In one people could only remember one day at a
time, and they would wake up every day in an unfamiliar house with an
unfamiliar person.  In another people had to look in their wallets for
their addresses and names.  In another people could live as long as
they liked in one moment; there was a description of a person sitting
with a professor in front of a fire receiving praise on a cold wintery
night while their friends looked in and then moved on with their lives
leaving that person behind in time.  Sorry I can't be more clear.

---

Clarification of Question by caecias-ga on 01 Nov 2002 18:00 PST

To further clarify as I remember more, each of the stories were
written more as a description of what the world would be like.  There
were no main characters or plot, just general people, and discriptions
of how different ways time could flow and what that would be like.

Hello.

I'm pretty sure that the book that you read was "Einstein's Dreams"
(1993) by Alan Lightman.

Here is a description from Amazon.com: "30 little fables about places
where time behaves quite differently."

Here is another description from an Amazon.com user:
"The book is composed of little short stories, each beginning with a
simple explanation and definition of how space and time work in that
world. Then Lightman proceeds to answer a more interesting question:
"what would people be like if time were like this?" He provides some
wonderful depictions of alternative realities, but from the social
perspective, not a scientific one."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446670111/

As you describe, there is no real plot or characters to the book.  

"It's a small book (179 pages) and comprised of a plethora of
mini-chapters about 2-3 pages long each of which explains what the
world would be like if time were like X."
From: The Book Barn
http://www.jp41.dial.pipex.com/R055.HTML

See also this discussion page about the book from the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh
http://www.english.uwosh.edu/einstein/Eassigndiscuss.html

search strategy: novel, "if time were like"

I hope this helps.

This is exactly the book I have been searching for during the last
four years.  I'll never loan it out again.

Terrific book, by the way. One of my favorites ever.