From the Bookshelf of The Perks Of Being A Book Addict…

The Midnight Library

Matt Haig

Start date: September 1, 2024

Finish date: September 30, 2024

Discussion: Group Books of the Month (BotM)

Why we're reading this: Chosen as BotM for November 2020.
[close] Chosen as BotM for November 2020.

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What Members Thought

Nov 29, 2020 Salma rated it it was ok

Shelves: do-not-get-the-hype

I wanted to like this story. And I did- up to the 55% mark. The premise grabbed me: Nora is about to commit suicide when she's whisked into A Midnight Library where she can try on different lives, kind of in a Sliding Doors way. Great writing style, and I loved the Dylan/Simon & Garfunkel references. :-)

But halfway in, I felt like I was reading a 200-page Hallmark card. There was no longer any story- just a lot of platitudes masquerading as dialogue. I was also able to predict her 'life' outcom ...more

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Dec 18, 2020 Amy rated it it was amazing

Magic unfolds when you read a book at the right time and place in your life. 'The Midnight Library' was that book this year. While not to the extreme Nora faced, the pandemic brings to life questions about the future, our past decisions and what we need to be happy.

Nora's journey in a Sliding Doors type of scenario, she began to understand the choices she made and forgive herself for other people's decisions. Living in a world that's full of uncertainty, makes us contemplate our future. Are we Magic unfolds when you read a book at the right time and place in your life. 'The Midnight Library' was that book this year. While not to the extreme Nora faced, the pandemic brings to life questions about the future, our past decisions and what we need to be happy.

Nora's journey in a Sliding Doors type of scenario, she began to understand the choices she made and forgive herself for other people's decisions. Living in a world that's full of uncertainty, makes us contemplate our future. Are we happy, content with our decisions or is it time to shake up our stories?

From reading Haig's novel, I gave myself permission to move on and embrace life. It's OK to pursue happiness and make our lives meaningful despite difficult times. I rarely give 5-starred reviews but this story resonated with me and I stayed up until 3 am just to finish it. For anyone seeking a book that requires pulling away the curtain to see beyond the smoke and mirrors we hide behind, check out 'The Midnight Library.'

Extract:

“It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living. Easy to wish we'd developed other talents, said yes to different offers. Easy to wish we'd worked harder, loved better, handled our finances more astutely, been more popular, stayed in the band, gone to Australia, said yes to the coffee or done more bloody yoga.

It takes no effort to miss the friends we didn't make and the work we didn't do the people we didn't do and the people we didn't marry and the children we didn't have. It is not difficult to see yourself through the lens of other people, and to wish you were all the different kaleidoscopic versions of you they wanted you to be. It is easy to regret, and keep regretting, ad infinitum, until our time runs out.

But it is not lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy.
We can't tell if any of those other versions would of been better or worse. Those lives are happening, it is true, but you are happening as well, and that is the happening we have to focus on.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

...more

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Feb 21, 2021 Beth rated it really liked it

An engaging look at the power of regrets to weigh us down in life. Very enjoyable. The beginning is a little hard because Nora is just so stuck in quicksand, it's painful to experience. But she grows on you and her journey is believable. ...more

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Apr 10, 2023 Gwen rated it really liked it

Shelves: rfl-book-group, uno-game-2023

Fantastic book! Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, reviewing all her life's regrets, and she has the opportunity to change her decisions and live different lives that she could have had. Which one will be the right one? An enjoyable look a regret, decisions, and what it means to really live in the life you have. A smidge predictable and contrived but I really loved the warm fuzzy feelings and the relationships between people and the choices that they make. A good read for book grou ...more

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Mar 11, 2021 Kelli V Spann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: delightful-diction, life-lessons, audio, magical-realism, good-choice-awards

“I’m Alive!” She says! And you will feel it too, after you read this tale of a life that was once full of longing and regret - and is told in a fantastic new way that will spin you around on your head, turn you inside out, shake you a little and return you, a little less jaded and perhaps a smidge less regretful. If not, close the book and go back to the beginning and start again - clearly, you missed something! A heck of a ride.

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