David Silva Silva itibaren Texas itibaren Texas

I’ve had this book on my to-read list for years and I finally decided to read it. I LOVE the concept – getting a chance to relive your life, knowing what you know now. What changes would you make? What would you do differently or the same? How might those changes affect not only you, but other people in your life, and the world at large? I was surprised at how differently my mind works from that of the main character Jeff. I would never think about creating vast personal wealth. I wouldn’t have thought about trying to change world affairs either. That just seems too daunting and, as Jeff and Pamela found out, the results of such changes could be cataclysmic. My focus would be on changes in my personal life. Mundane and self-centered as that might seem, it would also affect other people. The extrapolated effects are mind-boggling. Pamela’s view, “I got so used to the endless possibilities, the time . . . never being bound by our mistakes, always knowing we could go back and change things, make them better. But we didn’t, did we? We only made things different.” feels sort of bleak. But Peter Skjoren sees things in a more hopeful way, “This time . . . he would do it right.” Spoiler: The author almost lost me in Chapter 15. I thought, oh no, not aliens. PLEASE! I did not spend all this time reading this to find out it’s sci-fi. The only thing lamer would be if it were all a dream. Luckily, neither was the case.

This was the first grown-up's book I could get my hands on to read at about age of ten, and after some another ten years reading it again was amazing. I still remembered it well from the first time - but in a very different light.