Counting Up, Counting Down, by Harry Turtledove

Another group of short stories by Turtledove. Like most collections, there were a few good ones (Deconstruction Gang and After the Last Elf is Dead) and a few duds (The Phantom Tolbukhin and Honeymouth). The reason to read this, though, is for the first and last stories: Forty, Counting Down and Twenty-one, Counting Up. These tell the story of a man going back in time to his own past from both points-of-view, the first from the older man traveling backwards and the second from the younger man getting visited. The plots are interesting, depicting the lyrics from the famous song: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find you get what you need.” I’ve read a lot of time-travel stories, but this unique take showing both sides of the visit makes it truly unique.

First Sentence (from the first story):

“Hey, Justin!”