"The Gem Collector" by P. G. Wodehouse

      James Willoughby Pitt began life with a hard knock.  The combination of his parents death during boyhood and his reluctant adoption by a wealthy Uncle laid the stage for a remarkable set of events.    Pitt's Uncle made an ultimatum to the young boy with a penchant for delinquency.  After being expelled from the finest prep schools Pitt was told, "go to work in my business or take this money and go  your own way".  He took the money and fled London landing in New York.  The following decade taught him a lot about life including some handy skills like safe cracking and conmanship.  For sure he struggled greatly in those early days. His survival due largely to friendships cultivated with nepherious characters.  Pitt became a well dressed, articulate gentleman with a secret.   He was a Jewell thief.
  Turn the page and Pitt begins a new life.  One morning he is reading the "Times" when he notes an advantageous post.  "If Sir James Willoughby Pitt would call upon Messrs. Snell, Hazlewood, and Delane, solicitors, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, he would hear of something to his advantage."  That advantage was the death of his Uncle who left his entire estate to Pitt. 
  Pitt seized the opportunity claimed his new found wealth and vowed to leave the old ways behind.  His former life provided the adventure that he craved but like all people in that dark world he feared the road that led to Sing Sing.   While in London adjusting to his new role as Baronet, Pitt dsicovered how small the world can be.  He encounters an old partner in the "business" and an old flame who happens to be the daughter of a crooked New York cop.  The resulting twists in plot lead to a captivating story in which Pitt may find love and happiness or he may find his exit from the old road was really a detour directly to Sing Sing.

"The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells

   H.G Wells' classic novella "The Time Machine"  was published in 1895 fully ten years before Albert Einstein first published his "Special Theory of Relativity".    Among its consequences, which are now readily accepted ,  are that "Time Dialation"  can occur between separate observers based on their relative speed of travel or location in reference to planetary bodies.  In other words, how we experience time is relative to our location and rate of speed.  Given this time travel becomes a possibility.  Wells was born in an age of steam power and before the invention of dynamite and yet his works prophecied accurately the invention of wireless communication, lasers, and answering machines.  I can't help but think that Einstein must have read Wells.   If he did perhaps a bit of credit is in order. 
  Every great human accomplishment was preceeded by the ability to dream or imagine.  Some one had to dream of flight before anyone could hope of inventing an airship.  Wells drempt of a Universe where time could be manipulated and then scientists postulated that he was right.  The direct effect of art and imagination on human discovery cannot be overestimated.  
  Of course this conversation would not be occurring were it not for the fact that Wells could spin a great tale.  "Time Machine"  holds your imagination and takes your mind on a journey that under current technology can only be experienced through books.  One wonders what our planet and mankind will be like in a thousand years.  Wells asks what state mankind will enjoy in a million years.  If you havn't managed to read this book in its 115 years of existence, you've waisted a lot of time.