CBR Bingo – Europe
In the wake of a surprising lay off I was looking for something to lift my spirits and came across this little tome, from the English author of “The Midnight Library.” That book was an examination of a squandered life as Nora has decided she has nothing left to live for. After taking the matter into her own hands, instead of finding herself faced with nothingness, she finds herself in the titular Midnight Library which is filled with volumes of books that show all the possibilities in her own life if she had made different choices along the way. Though that book wasn’t on my “best of” list the year I read it, I enjoyed Haig’s philosophizing and introspective characters and so I wondered what else was rattling around in his brain.
This book is essentially the random flotsam of a writer’s life, scribbled thoughts onto pieces of paper with no home, until they were all put together in this book. It is an enjoyable experience to wade into his stream of consciousness as he reflects on life, depression, self-worth and his exploration of his own existence.
Here is a passage that really resonated with me, as a sample of his writing and thoughts.
“Your mind is not always to be trusted. It sometimes lies or plays tricks, or doesn’t give you the full picture. It can convince you that you are terrible. A mind is real as a mind the same way a window is real as a window. But that doesn’t mean the view you see through the window is the full view. Sometimes the glass is dirty, cloudy, or rain-specked. And sometimes the view is obscured by a big lorry that is parked in front of it…”
It is a small book, coming in at 272 pages and only 3 hours 10 minutes on audio, and read by Haig as he picks through his disparate and charming thoughts. It is certainly uplifting if you are in need of a boost and something you can put down and pick back up again as the mood and weight of life strikes.
