Tick, Tock - The Time Keeper, Part One

Time's Up! Did you buy the book?

Bookcover from Amazon.com

If you didn't, I want you to know it is not to late.  It will take approximately 1 minute to read the first two chapters with us and you will be caught up! It was really hard for me to stop at Chapter Two.  Did you stop?  Did you keep reading? The first thing I noticed about this book was the dedication.  He dedicated the book to his wife who "makes every minute of life worthwhile."  How sweet is that? I wondered what other husband's might say to their wives if they dedicated a book to them.   Are you ready for this?

• "To my wife, for always being there and keeping us in line - keep living the life, babe!" (Mr. Sinclair)
• "I dedicate this book to my wife who has been a great wife to me and a wonderful mom to my two amazing children! My life would be empty without her!" (Mr. Hart)
• "To my wife: the hook that secures the bungee cord called our life." (Mr. Priss)

Since this book is about time, I decided to give you an official definition of the word time.  When I tried to define it on my own, I was stumped.  Think about it.  How would you define it?  The Macmillan Dictionary says that time is "a particular moment during a day, measured on a clock."  If you want to delve even further into the concept, I enjoyed reading about it on Wikipedia. This story begins with an introduction of main characters.  A girl needs more time in order to look her ideal best for a date.  A man finds out he is dying and wants to know how much time he has left.  We see the importance of time from different perspectives.  Hearing about the dying man might make us scoff at the girl's ridiculous pleas for more time so she can tone her arms or buy better clothing, but we know we have all been there.  How many times have we placed importance on gaining more time for things that do not hold long term significance? We also meet Dor (the future Father Time), Alli and Nim.  They are childhood friends playing outdoors.  Dor is notably different from the others.  He is fascinated with numbers and is the first on Earth to attempt counting and use numbers. Not that my Michael is Father Time, but it made me think of him and his early fascination with numbers and letters.  He, too, thinks differently from others.  My favorite quote in the first eight pages is this: "One different child can change the world."   I'm counting on it, but that's another story.  Hopefully, different in his case is a good thing. The author brings up a thought-provoking comment -  "Try to imagine a life without timekeeping." Can you imagine it? I live by my calendar.  Do you?   The closest I can get to imagining a life without timekeeping is to think of our family's beach trips.  On the days reserved for just playing on the beach, we have no specific time set to do anything.  We get to just... be.  If we are hungry, we eat.  If we are tired, we rest.  If we are warm, we get in the water.   But, even then, we are aware of time. This quote really brings the point home. Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. ~ William Faulkner
Online Book Club Participation Guide:

• Leave a comment on our Facebook page or here on this post about the book, your thoughts, etc.
• Questions will be available each week to help prompt your comments, but you are not limited to these topics.
• If you have a blog and want to participate through your own posts, please leave your post address in the comments section with your comment.
• If you are going to read ahead (our pace may be killing you), please stop and take notes.  We will read about 50 pages at a time.  This is a bit of a snail's pace for me, but I don't want to lose any of you in the process.  Thoughts?
• Keep all comments positive.  We don't bicker with each other, do we ladies?
• Read!

Next Step: Read to Chapter 20 (page 56) by September 26th.

Today's Questions:

1. Can you imagine a day without keeping time?
2. What do you hope to gain from reading this book?
3. Does the setting of this book entice you to read more?

I look forward to hearing your comments!

Mrs. Priss
Ironically, giving you a time limit on this book like...