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The Time Traveler's Almanac
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
13 posts | 8 read | 1 reading | 55 to read
The Time Traveler's Almanac is the largest and most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century's worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations. This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu's "Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers"). In fact, this book is like a time machine of its very own, covering millions of years of Earth's history from the age of the dinosaurs through to strange and fascinating futures, spanning the ages from the beginning of time to its very end. The Time Traveler's Almanac is the ultimate anthology for the time traveler in your life.
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kristenm
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Mehso-so

The broad interpretation of “time travel” and the 1000 page size had this in progress on my nightstand for almost five years! I am finally through the whole thing (with just a handful of skipped stories) and I am especially grateful to the editors for one thing — introducing me to Kage Baker and her Company novels.

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kaysworld1
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Thank you @Itchyfeetreader your package arrived. I haven't heard of any of the books I'll look forward to getting to know them 😆
#staycationintimeswap

Thank you @Chrissyreadit for letting me participate 👍

Chrissyreadit I‘m so glad it arrived! I hope you enjoy your Staycation! 5y
Itchyfeetreader So glad you liked thanks again for being patient with me the last two weeks have been not fun but I am feeling brighter and have an appointment with my oncologist to put my mind at rest. Loved all my items - so thoughtfully picked x 5y
36 likes2 comments
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BarbaraTheBibliophage
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900+ pages of time travel stories from luminaries to new-to-me authors?? For $2.99 (today only-U.S.)? Yes, I will, Thanks!

#timetravel #kindledailydeal #holywowsomanypagesforsolittlemoney

jenreads7 Awesome! Thanks! 5y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @jenniferajanes You‘re welcome. I hope we like it! They have a bunch of time travel related stuff today. 5y
jenreads7 @BarbaraTheBibliophage I hope so too. It looks great! I‘ll look around for other gems too. 5y
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tokyoseg Bought it tomorrow! 5y
brandybear22 I had a weird time travel-esq dream last night, I should go find a good book to check out, maybe this. Looks like a great anthology! 5y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @brandybear22 @tokyoseg Time travel is everywhere! Hope we like it ... 5y
100 likes1 stack add6 comments
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Faibka
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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What do you think? A good buy? :)

TobeyTheScavengerMonk Yes. Yes it was. 7y
erzascarletbookgasm I hope so, I have this too! :) 7y
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Sarah83 Everything fine? 7y
tpixie This looks good!! 7y
Faibka @Sarah83 Hi! Yes, working on it :) haven't logged to Litsy in a while but made me happy to see your comment :) I'll try to check in when I can 7y
Sarah83 Sounds good. 😉 Maybe spring and summer helps it going on. 😉 7y
29 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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SuperPunkNinja
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Tonight's #bookhaul! 📚❤📚❤📚

Joanne1 Wow, Lincoln in the Bardo is everywhere at the moment. Great book haul. 7y
SuperPunkNinja @Joanne1 I wasn't planning on buying it but when I saw that it was signed I couldn't pass it up. 7y
britt_brooke Nice! 👏🏻 7y
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DebinHawaii Great haul! 📚👍 7y
Eyelit Awesome! 7y
LeahBergen 👏🏻👏🏻 7y
TheKidUpstairs There's a Buffy colouring book?!?! I must find one! 7y
Lmstraubie Nice! 7y
vivastory The Vandermeers are the greatest editors, you'll enjoy that anthology 7y
SuperPunkNinja @vivastory I can't wait! 7y
Faibka This is great! I'm getting the Almanac 😁 7y
84 likes2 stack adds12 comments
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meganlynae
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Ursula K. Le Guin, the ever awesome, in her story called "Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea." So looking forward to the two collections she has coming out this fall.

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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Mehso-so

I think I'm not a fan of the single-topic anthology. This 943 page giant had about 10 classics I'd read and loved before, 2 or 3 great "finds" where I will follow up on the authors, and then about 600 pages of generic filler. Maybe there just aren't that many great time travel stories.

Chelsey Good to know. Saw it, wanted it, too broke to buy it, but now I'm glad I didn't 8y
CAGirlReading I agree, and as a rule I typically won't pick up curated collections like this one for that very reason. I'd rather read a collection of short stories on different subjects that were selected because of the impact they made upon the editor 8y
Procrastireader It sounds like they could have stopped at 300+ pages and had a pretty decent book. I'm not sure 943 pages of collected anything would be consistently excellent. 8y
69 likes8 stack adds3 comments
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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Crap. Now I can't stop seeing crappy similes everywhere.

"Their pillars and porticoes and cornicework swollen with self-importance like so many amorous street pigeons."

Damn you, Maestra!

prowlix At least these similes make sense? That has to be a small bonus 8y
Gezemice I will make sure to stay clear of Maestra. It seems to cause lasting damage... 8y
thegirlwiththelibrarybag I hate pigeons :( 8y
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boygirlparty good lord 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa I read all three of the original 50 Shades trilogy for a book club, I think I'm just going to skip Maestra. 8y
Procrastireader Wow. That was so close to actually being an interesting metaphor. I do like the "rucked up into 5-story apt buildings" image, and the pigeon thing could have gone well, but... Geez, this whole thing reads like a 1st draft. EDITOR *PLEASE* 8y
Procrastireader @Riveted_Reader_Melissa just read your comment--you poor thing. I actually could not get thru any randomly selected three pages of said epic 8y
67 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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I keep trying to finish this 900+ page monstrosity, but then I have to read sentences like, "The Hegemony shared their world with the Autonomous Directorate of Zan, a harshly abstemious land of puritanical library scientists ..." and then I remember why I hate science fiction.

mattgodfrey Have you read Jeff Vandermeer's own stuff? Because I don't typically like science fiction either but the Southern Reach trilogy was really something special. 8y
Yossarian @mattgodfrey I don't really hate science fiction. Just most of the stuff on most "Best Science Fiction Ever" lists. 8y
mattgodfrey Totally. It's mostly full of puritanical library scientists anyway. 8y
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faithx5 Ha, that kind of sounds awesome to me. 8y
ReadThisBookYall Yes!! Too much science, not enough fiction. . . 8y
ValentineWiggin On behalf of all library scientists, we are neither puritanical or abstemious!!! 8y
Vlad As an anthology that spans decades, of course you'll run into earlier eras of clunky 'scientifictions'. Readers should try & be generous with the context beyond the story. 8y
Yossarian @Vlad This quote was from Charles Stross's 2009 Novella "Palimpsest." In won the 2010 Novella for Best Novella. That's my problem with Science Fiction today in a nutshell. 8y
Yossarian *2010 Hugo 8y
JennaCzInWI LOL fave science fiction is really more fiction - Among Others by Jo Walton. Have you read it? 8y
Procrastireader I was going to guess Douglas Adams 8y
Yossarian @JennaCzInWI I haven't read that one, but loved Farthing, by Jo Walton. If I went back to her, I'd probably continue her British Currency Series. 8y
Keegz63 I love science fiction, just not the pompous crap - the condescending, " I'm smarter than you so don't even pretend to understand what I just wrote" junk. There's been a lot of that since the early 90's.... I have no problem bailing on that stuff. 8y
66 likes13 comments
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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Sometimes there's a story where a guy claims he's a time traveler, but our hero is having doubts. Is he or isn't he? In an anthology of time travel stories, you really lose all the tension and suspense. Inclusion in the anthology is itself a spoiler.

Shortstack How is this? That's a lot of top names! 8y
Yossarian @Shortstack I'm learning that there maybe aren't a lot of great time travel stories. About five or six are great ones I've already read. One or two new "finds" and about 600 pages of filler. 8y
sapnasricharan That's disappointing. I've been meaning to read this book for a while. I love stories about time travel, but they have to be clever. Otherwise, it's just a trope. 8y
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NicoleValentine Is this the paperback cover? 8y
Yossarian @NicoleValentine My paperback is the garish orange of a grade school crossing guard vest. This is a less offensive picture I found on the Internet. 8y
NicoleValentine Ha! Yes, I was making sure we were talking about the same book! I have the orange paperback. You're right about the hit and miss nature of the collection but I still love having it. 8y
47 likes10 stack adds6 comments
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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Reading a crappy Harry Turtledove time travel story from the 1990s where 21-year-old Justin from the 1990s meets 40-year-old future Justin from the 2010s. Besides being poorly written, future Justin reveals that the Rolling Stones are no longer touring, and he no longer remembers "South Park."

Yossarian I have seen the future, and apparently not a lot has changed. 8y
Marla I always bail on crappy books. Too many good ones out there to read to waste time on crap. 8y
Jerame2999 I gotta agree with Marla here. Life is too short to read crappy books or drink cheap beer. 8y
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Shortstack That's too bad. I really enjoyed the Southern Reach Trilogy. Sad to see not everything he's written is as good. 8y
Yossarian @Maria It is an anthology of short stories by different authors. I bail on novels when I need to, but never failed to make it through a 30-page story. @Jerame2999 @Shortstack 8y
BookishFeminist How is the rest of the anthology holding up so far? I've been curious about this but daunted by its size. 8y
Yossarian @BookishFeminist I'm probably the wrong person to ask. I have a complicated relationship with science fiction -- I sometimes love it, but I tend to hate most of the "Classics" (Ender's Game), and since I didn't read it as a teenager, a lot of older stuff doesn't have a rosy glow for me. 8y
Yossarian So, for me, it's been a lot more misses than hits. I found a new all-time favorites ("Is There Anybody There?" By Kim Newman, which was tons of fun and awesome), and others were pretty good, but overall it was mostly just OK. 8y
Yossarian @BookishFeminist Also, I've had to re-follow you a few times. I assumed it was a site glitch, but always concerned that you were trying to black me and I was being a nuisance. Glad to see that is not the case. 8y
BookishFeminist @Yossarian I sometimes have similar feelings to some science fiction, and TBH I get turned off of it easily bc it can be quite sexist as a genre, but I have a lot of love for many authors & love finding new stuff I love. I tend to love the Vandermeers' taste, so thanks for your thoughts. 8y
BookishFeminist @Yossarian Also no worries! Definitely a site glitch- book people is good people, you included. I saw the refollows and thought you'd kept unfollowing me! Listy definitely still has some kinks. You're not blocked & you aren't a nuisance! Usually. 😁 (kidding) 8y
Yossarian @BookishFeminist I guess I would say that this collection had a diverse array of both sexist and non-sexist stories, which is not exactly a compliment -- although a step above the all-sexist options. 8y
BookishFeminist @Yossarian It is definitely a step up. Maybe I'll see if I can find this in ebook or at the library so I don't drop the money on what might turn out to be a doorstopper. 8y
Yossarian @BookishFeminist Actually, in the story I'm complaining about in this post, our 40-year-old hero impersonates his 21-year-old self and sleeps with his (now-ex)-girlfriend. I don't know if that meets the legal definition of rape, but it's a 10 out of 10 on my flawed consent skeeve-o-meter. 8y
BookishFeminist @Yossarian !! Yes, it does for me too. Man, what a hero. 🙄 8y
47 likes3 stack adds16 comments
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Yossarian
The Time Traveler's Almanac | Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
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Shout out to the slow readers! I've been reading stories in this book for months now, but it's over 900 pages long, with small print and big pages. I'm still only a little over half done!

jeff Huge fan of time travel stories. This is soon to be on my bookshelf! 8y
36 likes13 stack adds1 comment