
“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig is my favourite book of the year so far (I know it was published back in 2020, what I mean is my personal favourite of all the books I’ve read this year so far).
The story centres around the multiverse hypothesis, with the lead character choosing different books in the library she finds herself in after she dies. Each book allows her to experience one of the alternative parallel universes which spooled out with each particular choice she makes in life.
There’s one book she keeps coming back to which is The Book of Regrets. This book gets thinner each time as each alternative life allows her to let go of regrets about paths not taken.
I find this story really thought provoking, challenging me to think about the place of regrets in life as well as about all those “if only….” lives we often think about.
But what I liked best about it is how it gradually built up the insight that every day is full of potential and every one of us, similarly, is full of potential.
Because by the end of this story I’m thinking “why not?” Why not imagine, not paths not taken in the past, but just how abundant are the many different paths which still lie ahead?
Because it’s TODAY when I have access to the multiplicity of potentials in the rest of my life. Just imagine what some of them might be!