Rating: 4.4/5
A delightful fictional story engrained with plenty of introspective questions about life. The protagonist, Nora, is an average woman who has lost her appetite for life. After attempting to overdose, she is unexpectedly sent to the purgatorial library, where she is faced to choose to live the books that represent the lives she could have been in a parallel universe. Bonus points for the smooth creativity of using the library to deliver main themes: the impact of small decision, perception, and living life with purpose/conviction.
Insights/Thoughts
- There are so many variations of our lives based on the micro decisions we make every day (or don’t make). I think that is quite powerful. We only stay in this life when we aren’t curious enough to try something different. What a waste to only one life when you could live many!
- Nora reflects on her time travels and mentions solitude – “connection between Nora and the world and herself and herself” The Zen and contentment of being with yourself is something I’ve learned to treasure. I find that solitude brings me focus, space, and freedom – much needed in lockdown times.
- Time travel is a topic relegated to the sci-fi universe, but the author reminds us that multiverses are rooted in quantum physics, an empirical science. We could very possibly have alternative selves living in a parallel – how bizarre!!
- The Book of Regrets thins out as Nora chooses to live her alternative selves from the shelves. The more she experiences (good and bad), the more she values being alive. I think we can all practice the same mental exercises to avoid regret because ultimately it is a perception that we missed out/failed at something that holds onto us. It is not reality. We need to be kinder to ourselves and learn to forgive ourselves and move forward.
- But maybe there are no easy paths. There are just paths. Another reminder that experiences and events are neutral – we are the storytellers and can take each obstacle and challenge as something that builds us.
Favourite Quotes
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. …the game is never over until it is over. It isn’t over if there is a single pawn still on the board. Never underestimate the big importance of small things. The only way to learn is to live Want…is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely. Maybe you have a lack problem rather than a want problem. Maybe there is a life that you really want to live. Doing one thing different is often the same as doing everything differently.