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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS The Midnight Library |
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1. The Midnight Library is different for each person who enters
it. Nora experienced it as a library because of the meaningful
relationship she had with Mrs. Elm, her childhood school librarian.
Later, we learn that Huge experienced it as a video store, with a
cherished uncle instead of a librarian. What do you think your Midnight
Library would be? And who would be there?
2. Nora experiences a number of alternate lives in which she
achieves a great deal of success in one area of her life at the expense
of all the rest, be it in music, swimming, or polar exploration. Do you
think it’s possible to reach fame and fortune in a single field and
still maintain balance with other areas of your life3. In the library,
Nora learns that the life she gave her cat was one of the best he could
have experienced. Are there any parts of your life that you feel could
not be improved by living it differently
4. In her life before she finds herself in the Midnight Library,
Nora gave up many of the pursuits that brought her joy because she
didn’t feel like she could be the best at them. Do you think it’s
understandable that she would have given these things up? Do you think
that wanting to be the best at something can inhibit us from enjoying
it?
5. Mrs. Elm showed Nora the Book
of Regrets when she first entered the library, and Nora was
overwhelmed by it when she first looked in. But as she experienced more
and more lives, her list of regrets began to shrink. Do you think by
considering the ways in which our lives might have turned out
differently our regrets truly go away, or do we simply learn to live
with them?
6. In the world of the Midnight Library, the books take on the
role of portals into alternate realities. Do you think the role books
played in the Midnight Library is similar to the role they play in your
own life?
7. As the story progresses, Nora finds herself in lives that she
could be more satisfied with than others that proved more difficult. Do
you think you would be able to live as an alternate version of yourself?
Would you want to?
8. Over the course of the book, Nora lives a whole spectrum of
lives, some for minutes and some for months, but only at the end does
time actually pass, and by the time she wakes up in her root life it is
one minute and twenty-seven seconds past midnight and her outlook on
life has changed entirely. What do you think this says about the speed
at which we decide things about our lives and ourselves? Does it take a
lifetime or a just few seconds? |
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