Not too early to be drawing up Christmas gift lists, is it? (Or Newton's birthday gift lists, if that's how you roll.) Do I have the perfect suggestion for you: a nice copy of From Eternity to Here, undoubtedly the best book about the nature of time written by a Discover blogger this year. And the paperback has just been released today, so you get just as much knowledge for a fraction of the cost! Take your pick from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Indiebound. (But it's always nice, as an author, to get a big boost in the Amazon rankings. Just saying.) We should celebrate with a contest or something -- I have a few copies of the paperback that could be given away, but no clever ideas to spark a competition. Best short story about the arrow of time? Limericks are out, but perhaps sonnets? Or just for the biggest contributors to our Donors Choose campaign? Suggestions welcome. (Best suggestion for a contest? How deliciously meta.) At the moment Amazon is offering a bargain price on the hardcover, even cheaper than the paperback (presumably to clear out inventory). They are also pushing their Kindle editions, presumably to help stave off the iPad onslaught. Truth is, there are a lot more books available for Kindle than in the iBooks store, so like many people I read books on my iPad using the Kindle app. Anyway, Amazon is allowing readers to peruse the first chapters of some of their Kindle books -- so here you go! I wish it had been the second chapter, to be honest; that is where we get into some of the mysteries of entropy and the arrow of time. Chapter One is a bit more scene-setting (but it's a pretty awesome scene). Actually, looking at the sample more closely, they seem to have included the Prologue and some of Chapter Two. Even better! Note you can click the "Aa" icon near the top of the viewer to change the font size and line spacing, if you like to read more than twenty words of text at a time.
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