“Between life and death there is a library,”she said. “And within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
Have you ever thought of living a whole different life from your life now? Or have you ever thought about how your life would be completely different if that one thing never happened? In this book, Matt Haig invites us to join Nora Seed in her life journey through regret, decisions, and choices.
Everything just doesn’t seem to work out for Nora Seed. First, her cat died, and she got fired from the very job that hasn’t paid her for months. Next, her mother died and as she mourned, she decided to pull out two days before the would-be wedding with her ex-fiancé. She got no one to talk to. Izzy, her friend, living in Australia was just a memory to her. Joe, Nora’s older brother, didn’t want to meet or even contact her. She was once a swimmer in her early days and a singer for The Labyrinths, a band consisted of her, Joe, and his friends. The brilliance of her past was contrary to the present. Nora’s free-falling into a black hole. She got no one to talk to and she doesn’t feel needed. The world just seems fine without her around. With the continuous monotonous life proceeding, Nora’s tearfulness, emptiness, and hopelessness build up. A realization hit that she wasn’t made for this life. “Her whole being ached with regret as if the despair in her mind was somehow in her torso and limbs too. As if it had colonized every part of her.” And that night, she decided it’s a very good time to die.
The death of Nora Seed marks the start of the story. The book entered the Midnight Library where between life and death there is a library full of books that gave chances of a different life one could have lived. Here, Nora Seed’s regrets and pain were refreshed for her to make better life choices. As agonizing as it may sounds, I think this is the best way possible for someone to grow and prosper that hopefully will lead to better decisions.
As I read through it, I realized that this is one challenging book for me. I was unfamiliar with some of the terms used in the book, such as quotidian, dilapidated, slovenly, etc. On the other side of the coin, this is a great chance for me to enrich my vocabulary. This book explores not just life, decisions, choices, and relation. It also looks into mental health. It’s fascinating how the writer gave us an appetizer of what depression is like by describing what Nora felt. I’m expecting more rally through the ups and downs of life and adventures of endless decisions and possibilities to come.
Hello, Nadine!
ReplyDeleteSince this book talks about life, decisions as well as choices, could you also share one of your personal experiences related to the issue? (ex: how you feel and how you make a decision in the past)
Hi, Nadine!
ReplyDeleteAs your title “choose a life”, life is nothing more than making choices for me. I’ve once been through the time which everything went wrong in my life and I could not change nothing, in that period, I was thinking if I could escape from where I lived, how better my life would be. For my personal life, it was abundant with lots of regret, and to my most disappointment is that I wasn’t able to change those which had happened. However, life thus has its meaningfulness, luckily I didn’t take the same path as Nora; when you overcome those bitter time, they seemed to be nothing to me. Back to the storis, I really want to know what’s midnight library like and this time Nora would make what kinds of choices; in addition, the mental health part has also drawn my interests because I’m curious about what it has to do with mentality.
Very hope to see your next blog!!!
Hello, Nadine!
ReplyDeleteReading your blog is just like reading this novel which I never read yet! Your description is thorough but precise. I appreciate the beginning you wrote, which is one of the reasons why I am interested in this blog and want to dig into it. From my own perspective, I am fond of the issue regarding life. Everyone has more or less made the mistakes, and I am no exception. However, how to deal with the mistakes is the most vital lesson that we have to learn instead of regret and depression. No one can have the second chance to change the past; instead, all of us have the opportunity to lead a hopeful future. In my opinion, all we need to do is change our own mind. Don’t always remain in melancholy, but learn from the mistakes and keep going! Besides, I can’t help looking forward to the following plot and your next blog!!
Hi, Nadine.
ReplyDeleteMental health is a topic that is discussed in books a lot. I also like the way the writer used to convey the importance of it. It's more appealing and interesting for readers to follow his steps and then have a different insight of it. Also, the chance to choose a life? I think it is an question which is worth discussion in class and some time to ponder on. If I was in Nora's shoes, I will probably choose another life and try to have it better. What about you, Nadine? If you were Nora, would you make the same decision as Nora's?