Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:03:29 -0500 (EST)
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Reading Stirling's _A Meeting at Corvallis_ in real time
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

As SF readers, it's common for us to read books set in the future.

A few months ago, I bought S.M. Stirling's _A Meeting at Corvallis_.
When I noticed that it was set in the near future, I set it aside,
with the intention of reading the whole thing in real time.  The first
chapter is set today.  I started reading it a few minutes ago.  When
I noticed it was set just at the end of evening twilight in Portland
Oregon, I put the book down and looked up exactly when that would be.
It will be getting dark there in just about an hour.  So I'll resume
reading then.

(That chapter, or at least the beginning of it, is set in a specific
room in a specific library in that city.  I wonder if anyone will be
reading it there then.)

I've read stories set billions of years in the future, but I think
this was the first time I've read anything (albeit only a couple of
pages) set just one hour ahead.

Reading the novel real time means I won't finish it for nearly a year,
but that's okay.