A Return to Books, Featuring The Midnight Library

Once upon a time, this was a book blog. When I started Scribbling in the Margins, it was to blog about all the books I read, as well as documenting my life in college.

A lot has changed since then. I wanted to write about more things than just books, such as my Disney College Program and young professional adventures, so I strayed away from books here and left my reviews to Goodreads instead.

(Plus, I am not a photographer and didn’t love having to come up with pictures for my books every time I wrote about them.)

Over the past year and a half or so, books have become a big part of my life again. And I want to talk about them. I may not feature a cover of the book or even write a traditional “book review,” but the books I read integrate so much into my life right now, they feel like a natural way to return to blogging.

The Book: The Midnight Library

Finishing Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library last week led me back to this space. I loved it so much and needed to talk about it, but until my mom reminded me she too had read and loved the book, I felt like I could only think about it in my moments alone. That is until I remembered I could also write about it.

The Midnight Library explores the idea of parallel universes, where a different version of you is living out infinite lives based on decisions you’ve made. The story centers around Nora and how she lands in this space between life and death—the Midnight Library—and gets to choose different lives to try on.

Through a mix of physics, philosophy, books, and facts of life, Haig explores what decisions mean and how any life we live can be meaningful. You don’t have to explore your own Midnight Library to think through what other lives you might be living and what lessons you can take from them to apply to your real, actual life.

Nothing to do with books, this is just me very happy to finally see snope (snow made out of soap - it’s a Florida thing).

I struggle with decisions and insist that there is always a “right” choice in any circumstance. I don't understand when people tell me that’s not true because, as Nora discovers, some lives are better than others based on choices she’s made. But what The Midnight Library helped me realize is that no matter if a decision is “right” or just another choice, it’s led to my life, the one I’m in now, and there’s no reason to wish I’d picked differently. Instead, we have to take what life gave us and go with it, living as best we can with as few regrets weighing us down as possible.

I’m no philosopher and definitely not a scientist. But as I enter 2021 feeling no different than 2020, hoping for a year of only small changes or consistency, it helps to read a book reminding me that I still have control over how I perceive my life. I may lose my job, move, make a career change, or do nothing at all, but I still control what those changes mean to me and what I do about them.

The best kinds of books are the ones that make me reflect and consider things from a new angle. The Midnight Library is a model of that, and I’d recommend everyone read it.

So, in summary…

I’m hoping this year I’m able to set more time aside for writing. Coming back to this blog in a format that inspires and excites me is part of that. Books and their stories are sparks that keep me excited about each day, and I look forward to spending more time with them and sharing that experience with all of you.