What is the name of this book?
 

A friend told me about this book he read back in high school but can't remember the title or author. It's a time travel book, where the person going back in time has to stay within a grid to keep from altering history. Well, this one guy goes back in time to hunt dinosaurs, but at one point barely sticks the tip of his foot outside of the grid and the small footprint that he leaves totally alters history so that when he comes back to the present, all of Asia is totally gone (or something to this effect, my friend was a bit hazy on the details). So he keep going back in the past and trying to change things back to normal. And at the end he finally fixes it so that the only thing that is different is that a different person is elected president. I believe The Simpsons did an episode based on this book in one of its halloween specials. Could someone PLEASE give me the name of this book? I'm dying to read it.

It's a Ray Bradbury short story called "A Sound of Thunder."
And he only goes back in time once, from what I remember. Just check somewhere for short story collections and you'll find it in one of them.

Actually, I found an online version of it:
http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/WWI/thunder.htm

It's definately worth the read for anyone reading this thread and has never read the story before.

It's been filmed for anthology shows. I saw a version where they had to stay on a levitating pathway to avoid stepping on any living plants or animals because the repercussions through millions of years of history could not be calculated. They were only allowed to hunt dinosaurs that they knew were going to die soon. I won't go into how it ended but it was pretty interesting.

I've also heard there are plans to turn it into a Hollywood movie. One of Bradbury's best stories, IMHO.

Homer did this once, and it rained doughnuts.;)

Thanks for the replies! On another message board, somone mentioned they also thought it was a Bradbury short story and said they thought it was from The Illustrated Man. So I ended up buying that book, only to find out it didn't have the story in it (still a great book though). I'm a bit dissapointed that it is such a short story, he could have done so much with this concept. And that would be sweet if it become a full fledged movie!

I'm serious- there's a Simpsons Holloween episode that does a take on A Sound of Thunder.

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but there was a Simpson's take-off on this story one year in the "Tree House of Horror."

Yes, it was mentioned- by me 1 minute earlier. :p