The Midnight Library - Matt Haig Third Day Reading

Recap: In the previous reading, Nora got a chance to live the dream she had envisioned with her boyfriend, thinking she would lead a happy life. But she was disillusioned when she found out that it was no better than the one she had lived.

So, after living out her first dream with her ex-boyfriend Dan—only to be disappointed—Nora finds herself back in the Midnight Library, where she is offered another chance. This time, she chooses a life where her cat, Volts, is still alive. She had always believed that Volts died because she was a careless owner, and this guilt weighed heavily on her.

However, in this alternate life, she discovers that Volts had a terminal illness—some form of cancer—and was going to die regardless of how well he was cared for. This revelation changes something fundamental in Nora. She realizes that many of her regrets are built on misunderstandings or assumptions rather than facts. Her belief that she was a bad pet owner was just one of the many conclusions she had jumped to. This is the beginning of an important realization: much of her suffering was self-created.

Encouraged by this insight, Nora begins exploring more alternate lives—each one based on dreams she had once cherished. At first, these seem like promising paths. But as she steps into each of them, she begins to see a pattern: most of her dreams weren’t truly hers.

The bar in the countryside? That was Dan’s dream.
The Olympic swimming career? Her father’s dream.
The life of a pop star? That one belonged to her brother.

She was chasing versions of happiness shaped by others.

It doesn’t mean that all her alternative lives were worse. There were some lives which were good like the one where she was a glaciologist—a choice she had once seriously considered. In that life, after a near-death experience involving a polar bear, she realizes how much she wants to live. Also, she meets Hugo, another person navigating alternate lives like her. He explains the "science" behind what’s happening, hinting at quantum theories and infinite possibilities.

Nora seems to be enjoying this version of life—if not entirely, at least more than the others. But suddenly, she’s pulled back to the library again. There’s no clear reason why, but perhaps it’s the difficulty, isolation, or the sheer intensity of that life that brings her back.        

She continues to explore other lives, though most are short-lived—often just a day or two.

Eventually, she finds one that feels different. In this life, she’s a philosophy professor. Her husband is a surgeon. They have a daughter, and everything seems to fall into place. This is the longest she stays in an alternate life, and for a while, she is comfortable and at peace. And hopes to live there forever.

But her only fear is returning to the library. But over time, small details begin to bother her—things she can’t quite let go of. These little worries grow, and eventually, she finds herself once again in the library.

This time, it’s different. The library is falling apart. Books are burning. The infinite ceiling is collapsing. Mrs. Elm, the librarian, is hiding under the table. Nora is handed one last book—an empty one. She’s told this is the book where she can write her own story.

She writes something in the book, and then she wakes up—in her root life. She regains consciousness, is physically ill, and drags herself to her neighbor Mr. Chatterjee’s door, asking him to call a doctor.

This marks a turning point. She chooses life—not a dream, one that may not be perfect, but is real. Perhaps one closer to the life she had glimpsed in the final dream.