Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Paradoxes
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
A unique love story between a time-traveler and his wife, exploring questions of fate and destiny.
Using alternating first-person perspectives , the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago , and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), ... (Wikipedia)
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams
An intergalactic quest to find the answer to the ultimate question of life.
After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, , Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect , who drags him into a space-time eddy , ... (Wikipedia)
Ficciones
by Jorge Luis Borges
A collection of short stories exploring the limits of the imagination.
The seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his ... (Goodreads)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
A complex exploration of logic, mathematics and art, exploring their relationships and interconnections.
Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity ... (Goodreads)
Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson
A mysterious force disrupts the Earth, transforming the planet and its inhabitants in unexpected ways.
The story opens when Tyler Dupree is twelve years old. Tyler and his mother live in a guest house on the property of aerospace millionaire E.D. Lawton and his alcoholic wife, Carol. Tyler is friends ... (Wikipedia)
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings
by Jorge Luis Borges
A collection of metaphysical tales and philosophical musings exploring the nature of reality.
Although his work has been restricted to the short story, the essay, and poetry, Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina is recognized all over the world as one of the most original and significant figures in ... (Goodreads)
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien
A bizarre yet darkly funny tale of a man's descent into a surreal world of mischievous creatures and strange events.
The Third Policeman is set in rural Ireland and is narrated by a dedicated amateur scholar of de Selby , a scientist and philosopher. , The narrator, whose name we never learn, is orphaned at a young ... (Wikipedia)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
A fantastical journey of a curious young girl down the rabbit hole into a surreal world.
Chapter One – Looking-Glass House : Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty") when she ponders what the world is like on the other ... (Wikipedia)
The End of Eternity
by Isaac Asimov
A renegade scientist unravels the secrets of time travel, challenging the status quo.
Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a man whose job it is to range through past and present Centuries, monitoring and, where necessary, altering Time's myriad cause-and-effect relationships. But when Harlan ... (Goodreads)
Ubik
by Philip K. Dick
A mind-bending sci-fi tale exploring the nature of reality and the power of the subconscious.
By the year 1992, humanity has colonized the Moon and psychic powers are common. The protagonist, Joe Chip, is a debt-ridden technician working for Runciter Associates, a "prudence organization" ... (Wikipedia)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams
An eccentric detective's surreal journey through time and space to solve a mysterious case.
Richard MacDuff attends the Coleridge dinner at his old college St Cedd's , where he witnesses his former tutor, Professor Urban "Reg" Chronotis , perform an inexplicable magic trick in which he ... (Wikipedia)
Diary
by Chuck Palahniuk
An exploration of the depths of human depravity, exposing the darkest aspects of society.
Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through ... (Wikipedia)
The Inverted World
by Christopher Priest
A city on rails moves through a distorted landscape, where gravity and time behave strangely. A young man must uncover the truth about his world.
The book consists of a prologue and five parts. The first, third and fifth sections are narrated in the first person by the protagonist, Helward Mann; the second follows Helward, but is written in ... (Wikipedia)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
by Douglas Adams
Quirky sci-fi adventure following a group of time travelers seeking to save the future.
Arthur Dent , Ford Prefect , Trillian , and Zaphod Beeblebrox leave the planet Magrathea on the Heart of Gold . A Vogon ship attacks them, and Arthur's attempt to have the ship's computer make him a ... (Wikipedia)
The Time Paradox
by Eoin Colfer
A time-traveling adventure to save the universe from destruction.
Angeline Fowl, Artemis Fowl's mother contracts a debilitating disease, which Artemis worsens by trying to use magic. Artemis desperately contacts Captain Holly Short and No. 1 , in hopes that they ... (Wikipedia)
Passage
by Connie Willis
Historians travel back in time to experience the sinking of the Titanic, but become trapped and struggle to survive.
Joanna Lander, a clinical psychologist, interviews patients who have had near-death experiences; she aspires to understand what occurs between the times when a person dies and then is revived. She ... (Wikipedia)
Carrion Comfort
by Dan Simmons
A group of powerful psychics with the ability to control the minds of others use their powers for sinister purposes.
The story begins in 1942, with a man named Saul Laski who fears for his life while at the Chełmno extermination camp built by Germans during World War II in Poland . He is determined to resist being ... (Wikipedia)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts
by Douglas Adams
A comedic exploration of the universe, featuring an eccentric cast of characters.
Charting the whole of Arthur Dent's odyssey through space are: THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace ... (Goodreads)
Einstein's Dreams
by Alan Lightman
Exploring the mysteries of time as imagined through the dreams of Albert Einstein.
The novel fictionalizes Albert Einstein as a young scientist who is troubled by dreams as he works on his theory of relativity in 1905. The book consists of 30 chapters, each exploring one dream ... (Wikipedia)
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Collection of aphorisms exploring the human tendency to conform to preconceived ideas and the importance of embracing uncertainty and complexity.
The Bed of Procrustes, is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in ... (Goodreads)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
by Claire North
A man born again and again, living the same life with different outcomes.
Some stories cannot be told in just one lifetime. Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a ... (Goodreads)
The Fold
by Peter Clines
A scientist must unravel the secrets of a mysterious invention that could unlock the power of teleportation.
STEP INTO THE FOLD. IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE. , The folks in Mike Erikson's small New England town would say he's just your average, everyday guy. And that's exactly how Mike likes it. Sure, the life he's ... (Goodreads)
Gwendy's Button Box
by Stephen King
A young girl is presented with a mysterious box that has the power to grant wishes and alter the course of reality.
The story takes place in King's fictional town of Castle Rock in 1974. Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson encounters a stranger in dark clothes and a black hat who invites her to "palaver". "I had a ... (Wikipedia)
The Man Who Folded Himself
by David Gerrold
A young man discovers a time belt that allows him to travel through time and meet alternate versions of himself.
In 1975, Daniel Eakins, a young college student, is visited by his "Uncle Jim". Uncle Jim offers to increase Daniel's monthly allowance for living expenses as long as Daniel promises to keep a diary ... (Wikipedia)
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
by David Eagleman
A collection of imaginative stories exploring life after death.
At once funny, wistful and unsettling, Sum is a dazzling exploration of unexpected afterlives—each presented as a vignette that offers a stunning lens through which to see ourselves in the here and ... (Goodreads)
The Library of Babel
by Jorge Luis Borges
A labyrinthine library containing every possible book, including meaningless ones. Raises questions about knowledge, reality, and the limits of human understanding.
Borges' narrator describes how his universe consists of an enormous expanse of adjacent hexagonal rooms. In each room, there is an entrance on one wall, the bare necessities for human survival on ... (Wikipedia)
Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy
by Kip S. Thorne
Exploring the strange and powerful effects of gravity and time, as predicted by Einstein's theories.
Ever since Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity burst upon the world in 1915 some of the most brilliant minds of our century have sought to decipher the mysteries bequeathed by that theory, ... (Goodreads)
All Our Wrong Todays
by Elan Mastai
A man is accidentally sent back in time to an alternate reality, where he must confront his choices and find a way back home.
You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon ... (Goodreads)
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
by Thomas Cathcart
A humorous exploration of philosophical concepts through jokes.
Here's a lively, hilarious, not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical traditions, schools, concepts, and thinkers. Its Philosophy 101 for everyone who knows not to take all this ... (Goodreads)
Jumper
by Steven Gould
A young man discovers he can teleport and embarks on a thrilling adventure.
One evening, while being physically abused by his father, David "Davy" Rice unexpectedly teleports (or "jumps") and finds himself in the local library, the Stanville Library. This is a place that ... (Wikipedia)
Time and Time Again
by Ben Elton
A man travels through time, trying to prevent a global catastrophe.
It’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they ... (Goodreads)
No Time Like the Past
by Jodi Taylor
A time-traveling professor's adventures through history, and the consequences of his tampering.
The fifth book in the bestselling British madcap time-travelling series, served with a dash of wit that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea. Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s ... (Barnes & Noble)
First Among Sequels
by Jasper Fforde
A madcap, comedic detective story featuring a time-traveling protagonist.
It's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the ... (Goodreads)
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality
by John Gribbin
Exploring the mysterious implications of quantum physics and its potential for understanding the universe.
It is so shocking that Einstein could not bring himself to accept it. It is so important that it provides the fundamental underpinning of all modern sciences. Without it, we'd have no nuclear power ... (Goodreads)
Blackout
by Connie Willis
A group of time-traveling historians investigate a catastrophic event in the history of England.
It is the year 2060, and the historians (time-traveling research staff) at Oxford University are a hair's breadth away from revolting. Mr. Dunworthy keeps changing their assignments at the last ... (Wikipedia)
All You Zombies
by Robert A. Heinlein
A time-traveling tale of a man who becomes his own mother and father, creating a paradoxical loop of identity.
" '—All You Zombies— ' " chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex ) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self (before he underwent sexual reassignment ... (Wikipedia)
Year Zero
by Rob Reid
Aliens discover Earth's music and become obsessed, leading to a threat of intergalactic copyright infringement.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced ... (Goodreads)
Timeless
by Gail Carriger
A time-traveling adventure of a Victorian woman and her vampire companion.
Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, ... (Goodreads)
Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All
by Jonas Jonasson
A hitman, a receptionist, and a priest team up to start a revenge-for-hire business. Chaos ensues.
A madcap new novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window, and, The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, Hitman Anders, recently out of ... (Goodreads)
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