If you had the ability to undo the regrets in your past, would you? In between life and death, Nora Seed comes upon a library, and is given the chance to pick from other lives she could have lived.
Just at sixteen, Nora Seed – the main character in the book The Midnight Library– already worries about her future, about all the possibilities it could bring. Yet, at thirty-five years old, nineteen years later, her future was not all that she expected. She obtained a college degree in philosophy, worked on and off at a small music shop for twelve years, and had many dreams that never came to anything. Nora had a best friend and a brother, both of whom she no longer talks to, parents that are not involved much in her upbringing, a fiancée that she bailed on right before the wedding, and a life that felt like a failure.
Nora eventually decided that her time had come and committed suicide. Somehow, at midnight she awoke in a purgatory – an in between. To her surprise, in front of her there was a library, with each book containing a life she could have lived.
The librarian here was Mrs. Elm – her old school librarian who helped her through her fathers death, and now is helping with her experience at the Midnight Library. By changing an action in her past life, the library allowed her to insert herself into an alternate timeline from the age of when she died. With each book, Nora Seed went from someone who was “a nobody” to being “everybody.” She was an Olympian, a mother, a rockstar, an astronaut, a music teacher, a glaciologist, and much more. She had lived thousands of lives, but none of them stuck. Instead of staying in the life, she arrived back at the library each time. Not one life felt right. None of them felt like her.
After some time, Nora realizes that her problem was with regret. She writes “it is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is regret itself. It’s the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people’s worst enemy.”
This book has many hidden meanings behind it. Matt Haig describes Nora’s adventures in a way that will make readers think philosophically about life’s perspectives. Ideas throughout this book are very thought provoking. Questions pop out in readers minds, like – what really makes life worth living?
One quote that stuck out to me was, “It’s not what we look at that matters, It’s what we see,” which is something one of Nora’s favorite philosophers – Henry David Thoreau – wrote. For me this quote describes how we can see positivity and beauty in everything that happens to us if we just change our perspective. The thing that matters in life is how we see and react to tough situations.
Another hidden meaning in this book is lessons about the future, and as I tend to stress about my future too often, this book was eye opening. In Nora’s life she does not have everything figured out. But it makes readers realize no one needs to have their life planned out for them to have a life full of experiences. This book demonstrates how time is not something that defines you, it does not hold you back from starting things you deemed too late to start.
After reading this book, readers will hear “live your life with no regrets” and hopefully take it seriously, as regrets hold you back from a life of fulfillment.
Go pick up this book, and live with Nora through her adventure of a lifetime. Yet in her case, it is more like lifetimes – thousands of them.
