Matt Haig

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

The Midnight Library

Every life contains many millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs, which in turn leads to further variations. 

Between life and death there is a library. And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices. Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

Leon

« Aber du wirst niemals leben, wenn du nach dem Sinn dessen suchst », sagte er wissend.

Ein Mensch war wie eine Stadt. Ein paar weniger wünschenswerte Aspekte durften nicht den Blick aufs Ganze verstellen.

« Manche Reuegefühle basieren überhaupt nicht auf Fakten. Manchmal sind Reuegefühle… Ms. Elm suchte nach dem richtigen Begriff und fand ihn schließlich, ... ein Haufen Scheiße. »

An der Natur teilzuhaben, bedeutete, auch am Überlebenswillen teilzuhaben.

kinda hopefull kinda ominous quote about life

mina

'Well that's the beauty isn't it. You just never know how it ends.'

'It seems impossible to live without hurting people.' 

thats the whole chapter titled ' A Moment of Extreme Crisis in the Middle of Nowhere' lol

' 'Oh fuck,' whispered Nora, into the cold.'

 Henry David Thoreau quote i liked from the book

'Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty, The obedient must be slaves.'

'Principals of Hobbesian Memory and Imagination'

'...watching as the tissue disappered from the librarian's hands the moment she'd finished using it, through some strange and hygienic magic.'

my house name!!!! first time seeing it somewhere else

Jawahir M

We are as completely and utterly alive as we are in any other life and have access to the same emotional spectrum.

We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.

Life begins, Sartre once wrote, 'on the other side of despair.'

There was a net of love to break her fall

You are right to think of these lives like a piano where you're playing tunes that aren't really you. You are forgetting who you are. In becoming everyone, you are becoming no one. You are forgetting your root life. You are forgetting what worked for you and what didn't. You are forgetting your regrets.

It's an easy game to play (chess), she told Nora. But a hard one to master. Every move you make opens a whole new world of possibility

That was how she had felt most of her life.

Caught in the middle. Struggling, flailing, just trying to survive while not knowing which way to go. Which path to commit to without regret. 

It is so easy, while trapped in just the one life, to imagine that times of sadness or tragedy or failure or fear are a result of that particular existence. That it is a by-product of living a certain way, rather than simply living.

Every second of every day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad.

Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?

This had been on my TBR shelf for ages and I'm glad I finally picked it up. This book starts in a bad place and leaves you full of hope by the end. 

Liam Richardson

This had been on my TBR shelf for ages and I'm glad I finally picked it up. This book starts in a bad place and leaves you full of hope by the end. 



Julie Palacio

i enjoy this book a lot! it was funny seeing her try different lives and it makes me think of my biggest regrets and if i’m living in my full potential (i’m not) but i wish nora the best 

debbie ojalvo

Read it a while ago but loved it :) I love any books that make you reflect on life

The idea behind the book was interesting, however the author had not seized the opportunity as should have. The story had more of a potential. Anyway it’s a fun read.

HelyaSameni

its so crazy bc,,, ive seen this book so many times and thought about reading it so many more times but for some reason i picked it up the other day and i feel like it was just the right moment to read this, ive been feeling very,,, unsure about the future and everything and regretting a lot of things and just feeling not good, and i cried a lot not bc its a sad book but bc i understood it. and its very beautiful

The touching, funny and heartwarming new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of How to Stop Time and Reasons to Stay Alive.

Maureen

“Places are places and memories are memories and life is fucking life.”

***

Somewhere between 3 and 3.5. There were numerous quotes like the one above, so I found myself cringing a lot. I started off with high expectations, then halfway through I felt the book was overrated. Later something piqued my interest, but in the end, my expectations remained unmet. The premise really caught my attention, because I'd never heard of anything like it. Though I'm not big on the self-help advice, so I felt like the book was trying a bit too hard. The ending was so predictable and I'm disappointed because it felt like the author made no effort to switch it up. I had envisioned a potential ending— if it had happened, I might've given this book 4 stars. But it didn't, so there's that.

For what it's worth, the book is physically pretty, though.

big ab

*warning: i’m about to be a real big bitch*
this book was so boring. it could have been so cool. but it was just not. it was giving “male author writes a book based off a thought i had in middle school and yet he thinks it’s groundbreaking and life changing because he had this thought at 45 years old and i had braces when i thought of this”

I dnf this book, it was……. Not my thing 😭😭

Saloni

cool concept and i had high hopes for this book but felt very self-help at a lot of parts and also the main character had so many different sides to her it felt unrealistic.

a phenomenal book - i think one of the most powerful and authentic mementos to the value of life i’ve ever read.

not only was this book imaginative and creative but it was also so human. so real. so sad. so happy. so nerdy and it felt like it hit me in just that right spot if you know what i mean. 

life is really hard and there are so many ways we could live it. there are so many decisions we could’ve made or things we could’ve said. and yes, they would drastically change the life we live - but the truth is that we get if we could somehow find a way to visit those lives like nora did in the midnight library, they wouldn’t be ours. they wouldn’t be the one we did live. they wouldn’t be the one where you made one decision over another. and that is sad but mostly great because like you can truly to whatever you want to do if you have the right perspective. like it’s dumb and cliche and annoying because it puts the blame on you if you’re not happy but truly like you can achieve things that seem outlandish and ridiculous you just have to want to do them. 

thank you matt haig for reinforcing that there is so much i love and so much more i want to love. you bolstered my love for life in a way i couldn’t have predicted through this wonderful story.

thanks for choosing life over the midnight library, as i have!

ps: i’m emailing this review to him because why not matt haig will read my words.

Ashna Nirula

a phenomenal book - i think one of the most powerful and authentic mementos to the value of life i’ve ever read.

not only was this book imaginative and creative but it was also so human. so real. so sad. so happy. so nerdy and it felt like it hit me in just that right spot if you know what i mean. 

life is really hard and there are so many ways we could live it. there are so many decisions we could’ve made or things we could’ve said. and yes, they would drastically change the life we live - but the truth is that we get if we could somehow find a way to visit those lives like nora did in the midnight library, they wouldn’t be ours. they wouldn’t be the one we did live. they wouldn’t be the one where you made one decision over another. and that is sad but mostly great because like you can truly to whatever you want to do if you have the right perspective. like it’s dumb and cliche and annoying because it puts the blame on you if you’re not happy but truly like you can achieve things that seem outlandish and ridiculous you just have to want to do them. 

thank you matt haig for reinforcing that there is so much i love and so much more i want to love. you bolstered my love for life in a way i couldn’t have predicted through this wonderful story.

thanks for choosing life over the midnight library, as i have!

ps: i’m emailing this review to him because why not matt haig will read my words.

LA BIBLIOTECA DE LA MEDIANOCHE/ THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY.

Natalia Cerrillo

máru

4.5 ⭐

This is a self-help book that didn't feel like a self-help book — believe me, I know (I hate self-help books). 

Absolutely beautiful writing that hooks me from the beginning. I find myself gravitating towards Nora and feeling as if it's me in those pages instead of her. She is so well-written; Matt Haig, you are a gem. I understand if for some, Nora Seed is a frustrating character, but her story is the reality for people who deal with depression. I love how her recovery feels like my recovery. 

The only reason I didn't give this a full 5/5 is that at some points, some sentences just drag on when I totally already get the point of what it's trying to help me understand. But other than that, I love how easy this is to get into.

I, too, have my own regrets in life, which is why I think I empathized towards Nora. 

This book made me comfortable with the idea of dying. But it also made me feel less guilty about living.

Eva Ströberg

This book should have deserved more stars than three, but the way it unfolds itself smells too much like a British chicklit for me, something that I consciously avoided the past few years.

I mean the book discusses about the possibility of parallel lives and the philosophy behind that, what can be cooler about that? That you are not necessarily 100% happy if you had taken the other choice as well, and that even though your life sounds and looks wonderful from the outside world, doesn't mean that you don't get depression. But Nora, dear Nora, I found her too whiny, a girl with so much potential that ended up falling flat on her asses. It might be just me, but I don't have the patience to read through her complaints and her falling out with people because she didn't "do enough" in her life.

First world's privilege? Perhaps, but seen from my perspective, I almost dumped this book halfway, so three stars by the end of the book is already something for me.

laina

Beginning and part of the middle were very good. I was hooked and super interested! Then towards the end I got bored and just wanted to finish it and move onto the next book. There is a lot of sentimental meaning, many people would probably relate to and feel comforted by. Maybe if I was in a different time/space I would’ve appreciate more but can definitely see the appeal of this book!

Also it reminded me a lot of “A Short Stay in Hell” by Steven L Peck. Very similar concept, just less thrilling.

Kiran Aftab

3.5/5
as someone who is job searching, in that weird waiting period between job offers, and riddled with panic, this came at the right time. this isn’t necessarily revolutionary, but it’s a reminder i needed... 
p.s. no ragrets

"And like a volcano she couldn't run away from herself. She'd have to stay there and tend to that wasteland.

She could plant a forest inside herself."

Anastasiya

"And like a volcano she couldn't run away from herself. She'd have to stay there and tend to that wasteland.

She could plant a forest inside herself."

Erin G.

Preachy and lacked tension. TW: cat death and embarassing take on Thoreau.

Lettuce Wrapped Cabbage Cat

Ícaro Morbeck

Este livro é uma reflexão interior, e uma autoavaliação da própria vida que, compreendida e comunicada de forma brilhante pelo escritor, atingiu o âmago do leitor.

É impossível ler este livro sem reavaliar as decisões que você tomou, e tem tomado em sua própria vida. Ainda assim, de forma muito sábia, Matt Haig nos prova como não importa o que estaríamos fazendo em outras vidas, e não adianta fugirmos das consequências que plantamos para uma realidade em que as coisas são mais fáceis. Cada um de nós carregamos nossa própria cruz, e levaremos ela até o último de nossos dias. 

O escritor exibe o tema de sua história de forma bem evidente para o leitor, não se apoiando tanto no subtexto, mas na exposição. Nos colocando através do olhar de sua protagonista para comunicar que não existe um certo modo de viver que nos torne imunes à tristeza. A tristeza é parte intrínseca do tecido da felicidade. Não dá pra ter uma sem ter a outra. Não há uma vida em que uma pessoa possa existir num estado permanente de felicidade absoluta. E pensar que existe uma visa assim só acrescenta mais infelicidade à nossa vida. 

Penso neste livro sempre que começo a contemplar os "O que teriam sido" do passado, e então me lembro de que eles não importam. Não existe uma biblioteca da meia-noite, só existe o hoje, e o agora. Somos os donos de nossas escolhas, e do caminho que queremos tomar nesta jornada. Como toda boa obra de arte, este livro evoca emoções. E, particularmente, este livro me inspirou a viver a melhor vida que eu poderia viver, independente da realidade que eu esteja inserido. Ser a melhor versão de mim.

Jasmine

Good message. A little corny. A pretty cool way of explaining the choice-led lives we live.

Hassliebe, ich und dieses Buch. Hab den Charakter gehasst, hab den Charakter bisschen liebgewonnen, genauso auch den Schreibstil. Manchmal fühlt es sich einfach ultra belehrend vom Autor an, manchmal ist es wirklich lehrreich.

Manuela

I have not read a book cover to cover at such a pace since I picked up Hunger Games back in 2014. Solid pick for me, I can definitely relate to the main character Nora and her struggle with life and regret.

The Midnight Library

Reviews

Highlights