The Midnight Library

Tonight's adventure had me driving into town to collect my mail, something which needs to be done once a week. Just being out of the house at the moment is a good thing, even if it is to run an errand, in the near empty city, at seven'o'clock at night.

It's been a pretty fractious week at work, not helped by a couple of shouty meetings nor some uncertainy around what's going down on the project - so a drive, with my audiobook on the stereo, was needed. The perfect pressure release, especially as the city is all but dead, day and night, at the moment. 

Currently, I'm listening to Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, and it's got me completely suckered in. 

It tells the story of Nora, a woman who's crap life has been getting worse and she decides to end it all. Only when she does, instead of fading into nothingness, she finds herself in this mysterious library, where her high school librarian takes her on a wonderous journey where she gets to investigate the roads not travelled in her life - to work through her regrets with the hope she'll find her best life. 

It's a bit of a mix of Sliding Doors and a philosophy manual, in that Nora is a philosophy student with a love of Thoreau and a propensity for depression. (Hmm, remind you of anybody)

Anyway, I've been loving this book. I've only got about 30 minutes left to listen to, and being honest, I'll miss it. It's been thought provoking. Aiding this is Carey Mulligan's excellent naration. 

If I was to go and look at my books of regrets, what would I do over?

Being honest, I'm not one for regrets - they're a waste of good energy. There are very few things I really regret, and in the scheme of things, they appear to be minor, or a victim of circumstance from what seems a better alternative at the time. 

Yet I think of what could have happened. Just as Nora gets to invesigate worlds where she doesn't give up swimming, or quit the band she and her brother were in, or stay with her ex, a very small part of me would like to see what would have happened if I did a few things differently. The big one is always what would have happened if I came back to Australia after my two year visa was up. That's a big one. Or what would have happened if I never met up with the guy I lived with in London. Or stayed in my job instead of moving to a Greek Island. Or got a scholarship to a private school instead of going to the local high school. 

As the book says, we make so many decisions every day. Even the most minor of yes and no choices can make us completely different people. 

Anyway, it's given me something different to think about for the last week - which when you're in lockdown, with no real end in sight, this is not a bad thing. 

Today's song:

 Today's Cards:

The Enchanted Map: Magic Stream

Archetype Cards: Storyteller

Cards Against Humanity: Why am I sticky?  Dark and mysterious forces beyond my control.