About the Book
Einstein’s Dreams is a series of meditations on imagined worlds in which time operates differently than it does in our own. The author, Alan Lightman, a professor of physics at M.I.T., reflects on the nature of time by imagining what Einstein might have dreamt while working out his theory of relativity. As readers we share Einstein’s dreams, which Lightman writes as 30 fables about places where time behaves quite differently. In one of these dreams, time slows with altitude, causing the wealthy to build stilt homes on mountaintops, seeking eternal youth and scorning the swiftly aging poor folk below. Eventually forgetting how they got there and why they subsist on "all but the most gossamer food," the higher-ups at length "become thin like the air, bony, old before their time." All 30 dreams are equally provocative, teasing readers into thought and discussion, which is the goal of Agnes Scott’s Common Reading program.
Einstein's Dreams was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 PEN New England / Boston Globe Winship Award, and it was the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Book Club. It has been used in numerous colleges and universities, and is one of the mostly widely used texts in American colleges today.
Student and faculty members of the Common Reading Book Committee chose Einstein’s Dreams for several reasons:
- It represents the kind of challenging, thought-provoking book we look for in our Common Reading program, which introduces incoming students to the richness, variety and excitement of a liberal education. Einstein’s Dreams encourages each of us to contemplate the nature of time, how our conception and experience of time shapes the way we live our lives and the values we hold dear.
- It has engaged, intrigued and inspired thousands of readers since it was first published in 1994, producing responses in the form of plays, short films, web sites, and blogs. We will create a number of opportunities for our community to share their own responses to the book.
- It will encourage the entire Agnes Scott community to consider and discuss the ways in which scientific inquiry and discovery shapes our thought and our world. Reading and discussing Einstein’s Dreams coincides with Project Galileo, Agnes Scott College’s interdisciplinary exploration of Galileo’s life and work during the 2009-10 academic year. This is the four hundredth anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope, an invention that transformed the ways we view ourselves and our place in the universe—much like the ideas of Albert Einstein.
Your Required Summer Reading
With Einstein’s Dreams, you’ll join Agnes Scott's tradition of required summer reading for new students. Please purchase a copy of Einstein’s Dreams this summer; you will be asked to submit a response to the book (an essay, art piece, poem or other creative response) before arriving on campus, and to discuss the book in small discussion groups with your ASC 101 leader, who will distribute your written responses to your academic adviser. The Agnes Scott College Library staff has created an online LibGuide to enrich your understanding of Einstein’s Dreams and suggest avenues for further exploration.
Please respond to one or more of the following questions about Einstein's Dreams:
1. In which realm of time found in Einstein's Dreams would you choose to live, and why?
2. Which realm of time in Einstein's Dreams most closely resembles your life, and how?
3. How does your perception of time affect the way you live your life?
You may respond with an essay or a creative work such as a poem, sculpture, composition, dance, short story, video, etc.. If you choose to submit an artwork or performance, you must submit a paragraph-length explanation. Essays, written works, or paragraph summaries are due by August 7, 2009 to
Orientation
c/o Agnes Scott College
141 E. College Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030.
Please bring creative works to campus when you arrive for the new semester; a special event for sharing these works is scheduled during the Orientation Week.
Past first-year books have included The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, American Woman by Susan Choi and Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.
Questions?
Tracey Laird, Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Common Reading Committee, is your current contact for the Common Reading. She can be contacted at tlaird@agnesscott.edu.
NOTE: The Random House Web site includes a synopsis, excerpts, and information about the author.