Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality

Well, the first twenty pages were interesting to say the least. The first chapter held promise by clearly stating a basic summery of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and finishing off with describing what he will cover in the chapters following. The part that I read of the second chapter was informative by clearly stating how the space time plane fits into relativity. later in this chapter he will decide how space time and other devices will form together to create Endless Dopelgängers, the title of the chapter.

180-end of book

In this last section of Around The World in 80 Days, the party manages to finally gain passage across the Atlantic Ocean. The reluctant captain is not taking them to their destination so money helps persuade him, they also end up buying the ship because they run short on coal from their intense feeding of the fire, they then use parts of the ship as fuel as it is mostly wood. they return discreetly and wait for the time to make their appearance. Jean makes a startling discovery that they actually had lost a day due to the time changes and so they race off to gain the prize destroying several carriages in their way. they make it on time and all is well.
for some reason Mr. Fogg and Aouda decide to get married and so life goes on.
I enjoyed the book although I felt that it was a bit dry in several places and some of the decisions were not the best.

Pages 160-180

The party of travelers meet Colonel Proctor and play a game of cards with him on the train. They get into a disagreement and insults pursue, they are going to settle this dispute by a duel between Mr. Fogg and the colonel. as soon as they are going to duel a band of Sioux Indians attack the train. Due to a courageous act that saved the train Jean gets held captive. Mr. Fogg goes to free him thus missing the train. Fix procures a sledge, a cart that is sail driven that is used when a train is not able to be used. They have to make up 8 hours to catch the steamer to Liverpool.
The circumstances of the duel were, in today's thoughts, meaningless but this shows how important the duel was in that society. It was the difference between living in shame for the rest of your life or being a figure of high esteem.

Pages 140-160

Mr. Fogg and Jean are now on their way across the US on a train. they have some minor setbacks but nothing to dramatic so far. and set back was a giant herd of buffalo are in the tracks. Jean is freaking out because of this. some other ones include going over a swollen river on a bridge that is not safe and stopping at a few stations for supplies.
I felt that Jean was very annoying in this section of the book, one, he freaked out because the buffalo were in front of the train and he thought that the engineer could do something about it, second, he was rejecting the idea of going over the bridge even though it was their only option! I felt like his methods of weighing what should be done and what shouldn't is not normal.

pages 120-140

Jean, aboard the ship Mr. Fogg was supposed to be on, needs to find something to eat. He uses his singing talent to gain some money and he hooks up with this acrobatic circus to gain a passage to the US. While he is doing an act he spots Mr. Fogg on the ship to America, at any rate he destroys the act. Later Fix tells Jean that now they are on American soil he can not arrest Mr. fogg so he will help them on their way to get to England. I felt that Jean's idea of turning himself into a traveling entertainer was smart, I also felt like the idea of traveling with the circus was wise as well. When he destroyed the circus act though I felt that he was wrong for this, it would have been better if he had waited and went to Fogg at a better time.

100-120

so obviously Mr.Fogg misses the ship to Japan, this of course leaves him in a pickle. So being resourcefully as he is he gets aboard another ship and makes it just in time to get on the ship leaving for the US. Jean ends up on the original ship and seeing that his master is not there he automatically blames himself for the inconvenience. During this whole episode the tention is mounting due to the fast acting and negotiating of Mr. Fogg and the captain of the ship Mr. Fogg is on. I felt that this made the book a lot more interesting. I also thought that Jean was to critical of himself, things like what he had experienced can almost never be stopped.

Pgs 80-100

So Jean is starting to be more cautious about Fix. He noticed that he followed them everywhere. They eventually make it to Hong Kong, but are delayed by a storm. Fix is wanting them to stay for a few days so he can get a warrant on Mr. Fogg, so he talks to Jean while he is going to tell his master when the next ferry will leave. Fix tells him about the robbery but Jean is not obliged to betray his master, so Fix drugs him with opium so he can not tell him when the ferry leaves in turn they miss it. I am starting to like Fix more than Mr. Fogg at this point, I feel like he is more trustworthy due to his ideas and ways of dealing with Mr. Fogg. Jean is a bit to ignorant of the facts in my opinion and Mr. Fogg is to self centered.