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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Aug 20, 2022 8:36:16 GMT -5
I agree. I'm just making a start on this weeks section, and I so far have no more comments to add. I don't have much enthusiasm for where the story is going.
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Lily
Catastrophic Captain
Posts: 80
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Post by Lily on Aug 21, 2022 11:44:28 GMT -5
I've nearly caught up but so far I agree with a lot of the comments here, its an interesting concept! I think the beginning is a bit too hurried as it feels like the author is just ticking key things off a checklist in order to set up the main story, rather than having it flow more naturally. This makes it really easy to see through the authors choices and predict where the story will go. I'd be interested in seeing how the rest of the book is in comparison to the first few chapters, I think maybe the author had a decent idea but struggled to set up the bits leading to the main plot ya know - When the cat died, I was worried what Kit's tits kick ticks 's reaction would be. She does not like things where cats dies I can also sympathise with not liking cats dying, I was like nO pls
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Post by HAL 10,000 on Aug 21, 2022 18:49:02 GMT -5
- When the cat died, I was worried what Kit's tits kick ticks 's reaction would be. She does not like things where cats dies I can also sympathise with not liking cats dying, I was like nO pls Agreed, I actually had to take a little break from reading(I was pretty tired anyway).
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Aug 22, 2022 0:44:52 GMT -5
Okay, so i've now gotten round to the 'revelation' about Hugo. It's an interesting one, and probably I should have seen it coming. But it has now made me more interested in the story than I was before, so I guess its working in some way.
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Post by B. on Aug 22, 2022 1:11:02 GMT -5
Yeah I've got up to this part too, I have to say it did make it a bit more interesting because I didn't expect it. The romance bit was a bit poorly executed/cringe though, and as someone with a physics degree I have to say I did roll my eyes at the schrodinger's cat/many worlds quantum theory interpretation bit.
I think this is boiling down to the fact that maybe the whole concept of the midnight library is just poorly developed/executed. Also I don't much care for the main character-I was empathetic for her at the start and now I'm kind of annoyed by her lmao
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Aug 22, 2022 14:53:44 GMT -5
So, I found Noras speech about success to be quite interesting. I said earlier in this thread that I'm someone who doesn't have as many regrets as I think other people, and especially Nora seems to have, and perhaps the reasons for that are because I'm not massively driven by success. I don't feel as though I've had as much pressure on me as others that I've known to be successful, so I don't feel like I've missed out on any potential success I have not had (not that I'm saying I'm unsuccessful, lol). I am also aware that society generally places more pressure on women to be successful than men, with success either being judged by having a successful carrer and/or family, and most of the time both of things, and most of the time both those things at such an impossibly young age. So yeah. Society sucks. Noras choices so far have been driven by her wanting to change parts of her life, but in each life she finds she is unhappy. She hasn't yet asked for a life where she is happy. Probably it's the one where she is least 'successful'. Or probably it's the one shes already living, idk.
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Post by twigz on Aug 25, 2022 7:19:02 GMT -5
i got my copy !!!! might take me a little to catch up because im doing a full time and part time course plus working lol
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Aug 27, 2022 16:04:43 GMT -5
Okay, looking at my (paperback) copy of the book I will be breaking up the discussion as thus Week One, Aug 6th-12th, Pgs 0-60, up to and including 'The Penultimate Update Nora Had Posted' Week Two, Aug 13th-19th, Pgs 61-120, up to and including 'Svalbard' Week Three, Aug 20th-26th, Pgs 121-171 ending just before 'A Silver Tray of Honey Cakes' Week Four, Aug 27th-Sep 2nd, Pgs 172-231 up to and including 'The Game' Week Five, Sep 3rd-9th Pgs 232-End Just reposting this so people (like me, for example) can remember where we are supposed to be reading up to. I'm enjoying the 'Nora as a rock star' segment quite a bit more than the others, but really sturggling to find any enthusiasm for where this story is heading.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Aug 30, 2022 17:08:43 GMT -5
I accidentally finished the book. The ending was quite similar to what I thought it would be, but not exactly.
Being a very self centered person it mostly made me think about what different versions of me there would be, but most of the lives I can think of are lives where I didn't do something I actually have done, not ones where I did something I actually didn't. For example where I didn't move to the UK, didn't go to boarding school or never started Irish Dancing. I probably would have kept doing other things instead, for example if I hadn't moved to the UK I might have done a master's degree, if I hadn't gone to boarding school I would have kept doing horse riding lessons and singing lessons, but those choices would have been consequences of others. I would be interested to see a life where I started school a year early or skipped a year in primary school, but those things would not have been my decisions, they would be my parents' choice, so I probably wouldn't have access to those "books".
I also had the idea that if there are infinite universes and versions of us, we naturally long to be in the same place/with the same people/in the same situations as some of our other selfs are, and that's what being homesick or missing people comes from, and why those feelings get better with time. For example when I first moved to the UK I sometimes felt quite homesick because most of my other versions were still in Germany, but since that I have made lots of new choices, creating lots of other mes who also live in the UK. I don't know if this is a new thought or a common theory like the idea of a deja vu being a memory from another universe.
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Post by B. on Sept 1, 2022 1:06:25 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm up to 231 now, could just finish it but I'll wait. I'm enjoying it a little more as it went on, but I still think Nora is really a little undeveloped for me to like her all that much.
I guess it's still a cool concept- it's definitely made me think about all the possibilities and avenues for life and even daydream about my own what ifs- and I can kind of see the upcoming message behind it and probably guess the ending. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone else though.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Sept 3, 2022 14:45:26 GMT -5
I've gotten a bit behind in my reading for this over the last few days, but am hoping to catch up soon.
A colleauge saw me reading the book at work, and asked what I thought about it. I said that nothing has really happened in the book that i loved, but nothing has happened that I've hated. I think thats the best thing I can say about the story
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Post by B. on Sept 6, 2022 1:58:19 GMT -5
^agree with the above.
Finished it the other night. I kind of found it unrealistic the fact that her depression, which is a long standing mental illness, seemed to just 'vanish' into the background overnight. Other than that, eh. I wouldn't recommend or discourage anyone from it specifically.
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Post by HAL 10,000 on Sept 7, 2022 10:05:39 GMT -5
Just finished. The romance was cringe, but I have somewhat of a longstanding fascination with the idea of the multiverse and wish more stories would utilize it.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Sept 12, 2022 15:00:36 GMT -5
Hoping to crack on with the rest of this over the next week. Kit's tits kick ticks and I are moving house, so have been very busy. I just finished 'The Many Lives of Nora' chapter, and the sheer of possible realities just makes me feel even more like this book is a pointless, though perhaps this is partly the authors intent at this stage.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Oct 17, 2022 15:12:45 GMT -5
So, a month later, I can finally comment on this a bit more.
I really disliked the ending of this book. I found Noras changes and decisions at the end to be unearned, which is ultimately the biggest sin of the story. I simply didn't believe that what she experienced throughout the book would be enough to change her outlook. In some ways, the book was maybe too short, not giving her enough time to reach that change.
I also disliked that suddenly everyhting in her 'root life' began to reflect some of the other changes and alternatives she had experienced for no logical or lateral reason.
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