Next on my reading list

I finished up The Forgotten Man, by Amity Schlaes this weekend and continued my recent trend of alternating between Fiction and Non-fiction reading.  Up until a few months ago, I couldn't even remember how long it had been since I read any fiction material.  Something about perusing my Dad's classic sci-fi library got me started again.  I've read just about everything of his that looked interesting, but I've been going back and filling in the gaps of what I missed as a teenager, starting with Robert Heinlein.

 

Saturday at Barnes and Noble, I picked up a copy of Time for the Stars.  It's the story of exploration of the galaxy for earth-like planets to colonize as the Earth reaches it's population tipping point.  Also, it's about using identical twins to telepathically transmit data back to Earth, as that type of communication ignores all laws of physics relating to the speed of light and Einstein's Theory of Relatvity.  In a nutshell, a radio signal from 11 light years away would reach Earth way too late to be of any use. 

 

Besides the great story of how the two main character brothers drift apart as the one living Earthside ages and the other doesn't, the overriding theme that occurs to me is that maybe our planet is currently reaching a tipping point, and we're not doing anything in an exploration capacity that will reap a usable benefit for the human race in time make a difference.  I suppose the same notion was a concern in the 1950's when the book was written as well. 

 

So far, it's been a great book and a quick read.  I'm hard-pressed to think of a Heinlein book that wasn't interesting or thought provoking.