It’s Been A Long Time Since I’ve Had Sincerely No Thoughts About A Book
The Time Machine By HG Wells
Building upon a successful year of beginning a reading habit again after a decade of leaving it behind to a busy life, I’m back at it with finishing one whole book.
Book Title: The Time Machine Author: HG Wells
Summary, told poorly by yours truly
Disclaimer: There may be some spoilers, but this summary is so bad maybe you won’t even recognize the events and elements. I’m just here for the memes.
Some guy (from the past, relative to our time) invents a time travel machine. Before he sets off on his journey, he gathers his friends to show off his machine and his friends ridicule him.
The next time they hang out, he emerges, tattered and worn, has a solid meal and sits everyone down for the largest storytime (i.e., the rest of the book). He tells everyone to not interrupt him and he just spews information and narrative for a majority of the rest of the book.
The short of it is that he saw some shit when he travelled forward in time. He learns that the human species splits into two different subspecies over time. Above ground, there is one species of people who frolick and exist as if they are permanently children, simply chasing dopamine. Below ground are these dreaded dark creatures.
There is some mention of fire and matches.
Somehow, at some point, he returns back in time to tell his bros about this entire experience. The next time around, he sets off on another journey.
He never returns.
The end.
Reflections and reactions
This book was interesting in that I had no reactions to it, whatsoever. In fact, if you’ve just read through the actual summary and memory I have for the story, I don’t remember any of it. This is really a first.
Sometimes, I experience this for non-fiction books with a deeper structure that might need a second read. But for this one, I think I simply read the words with my eyes but with my heart.
Yet, I did not dislike it enough to stop reading, as I have with other books that I felt were too much for my brain.
In other words, my brain liked the reading experience but not really any of the story. Is that weird? It was truly a weird experience to me. It seems like such a waste of time to spend time reading a story you can’t remember, right? Weirdly, no. It was good. It felt good to have finished my first book of the year.
What this whole reflection experience really told me is that I’m in a space in my life where I’m tired. It was good that this current book coincided with fiction because I find fiction generally “easier” to get through. There’s an element of being able to escape into a different world, even if I don’t remember any of the details of this different world.
Or, it might be a parallel to what was experienced in the book by the character himself. At the end of his story, he had a bit of an existential crisis where he truly wondered if he had gone through all of this or if it was some weird midsummer night’s dream. That’s how this story felt to me. I had experienced it, but then immediately pooped it out of my brain.
My gut-feeling is that because of the state of me, the reader, this was a shallow reading where a lot really flew over my head. I’m sure there’s political commentary in there, or some deeper philosophical meaning. I’m not ashamed to note that this flew over my head.
It’s not that I don’t read fiction for some of these important lessons and stories and political commentary. It’s that in this precise moment of my life, January 2022, smack dab in the middle of people yelling to return amidst the Omicron wave, I’m tired. I’m tired on like four hundred dimensions.
And so, I accept this was a shallow read. It was an interesting read. Now I can say that I have read it.
Perhaps, it will mean something more to me in a decade after a reread than it does now.
Only time can tell.
Hi, I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and I’m on a mission to document my reflections and progress in reading books and watching tv/ movies so that I can capture a snapshot of how things were in my life at any given point. It’s a more active process that I’ve found valuable and memorable, and has helped me remember things that I had entirely forgotten. If you have a book recommendation, please let me know in the comments below! (Self-promotion for independently published books welcomed; I have a separate list and a tiny savings amount just to support creators!)
Most days, you can find me on Twitter retweeting the egg memes that others have tagged me in! What’s next? Hop down this reading rabbit hole or support this piece by Will Hull!