Modificato il 31/05/25:A quanto pare, qualcuno si è lamentato con Goodreads perché ho usato \"eccessivo contenuto citato dal libro\" senza il permesso del detentore del copyright. Così ho contato – per mostrare la mia insoddisfazione per il modo in cui questo libro è stato scritto, ho usato 11 citazioni, di cui la più lunga è di poche righe. Su oltre 300 pagine.Penso che un fan del libro si sia offeso per il fatto che lo stessi criticando e spera che la recensione venga eliminata.Bene, rimuoverò...

For almost three years I have resisted. Friends told me to read this. Goodreads told me to read this. You'll like it, they promised. But I didn't like How to Stop Time and I didn't finish The Humans, I replied. Shh, this one's different.It sounds like one of those books where a depressed person with lots of regrets decides their life has worth because if they'd made different choices, they'd still be unhappy.Oh no, it's not that.Sorry, but it is kinda that. The best thing about this book is that...

Are You Serious, Matt?Could it be true that clinical depression arises from bad choices and disappointments; or is it more likely the other way round? Or is it the case that depression is a consequence of environment, one’s less than sane immediate family perhaps; or possibly genetics, an historical aberration passed down from family far distant in space and time? Is the world an objectively depressing place; or made so by our attitude towards it? The philosopher Schopenhauer thought depression ...

"That is just me. I add nothing. I am wallowing in self-pity." No truer words have been said by Nora, the world's largest wet blanket. Woe is her, folks.Nora ends up at the Midnight Library, a place between life and death, because she doesn't want to live anymore. The library is full of books, each representing a life she could've had had she made different choices. Now she has a chance to undo all her regrets (of which there are many) and try out all the lives she's missed out on, to see if ...

Life has just gotten to the point where it's overwhelming and all-encompassing and above all, Nora can't see a possible situation where it gets better. Everyone she's ever known has pulled away, her job is gone and her best friend in the world passes. All she's left with is herself and a cripplingly black hole.She slips herself a few too many pills and then drifts...and finds herself in a library.Not just any library though, the Midnight Library.Guided by a person who may (or may not) be Mrs. El...

“The only way to learn is to live”Fuck, this book hit me so hard. I finished this book a few days ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It has one of my favorite themes or tropes in a book, where we follow a main character who at the beginning of the story is very depressed and possible suicidal and doesn't see the point of life, but then slowly throughout the story begins to build an admiration toward humanity and life. This book was so beautifully written and I love the way th...

Everybody probably knows the premise of this book by now (I mean this book is everywhere): a library with an infinite number of books. The books of regret. You open one and it transfers you to the life where you didn’t make that particular regret. Was it marrying someone or traveling or maybe other little things.While I admit I don’t actively pursue parallel universes kind of books on one hand, and on the other, the main reason why I read this book is that I was choosing the best fiction this ye...

Okay. Picture this: you are about to bite into a cookie. A big, warm cookie. Kinda crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, yummy and chocolate chip-y and presumably made with brown butter and flaky sea salt, as all the best cookies are.And then you take a big ol' chomp, and...oh no. Not a chocolate chip at all.This cookie is filled with...RAISINS.Have you immersed yourself in that experience? Really felt the high expectations and the all-consuming disappointment?Good.Because that was my expe...

Okay! No more words! This is one of the best sci-fi and fantasy mashups of the year, with an added layer of philosophical depth. I LOVED IT! (And this isn’t just the kind of love where you raise your glass and toast the book. No, this is more like standing on the roof and shouting your love to the moon. If you’ve read the song lyrics to “Howl” in the book, you’ll probably understand why I’m so enthusiastic and why I’m writing this loud, passionate review!)This book isn’t just about Nora Seed, a ...

It is no secret that Matt Haig has mental health issues, dogged by the darkness of depression that has taken its toll on his life. His acute observations and experience of his condition informs this exquisite, inspiring, compassionate and empathetic novel where he creates the concept of the midnight library, to be found in the spaces between life and death, to explore life, the issues that afflict our world, through philosophy and more, endeavouring to tease out what might make life worth living...