Words of March || I Was a Busy Bee

March felt like a looong month.

I read so much, watched so much, and did a bunch of other random things. It felt like I didn't do much each day but it definitely added up to a lot when I look back on the month. That's good, I guess? Although I'm not looking at a big picture or moving towards a big goal, I'm doing little things that make me happy and can build up to a lot.

Grab a drink and settle down in your couch, I've got a bunch to catch you up on ☕️

reading 📚

I read a whopping 17 books in March. Seventeen. My "average time to finish a book" reduced from 4 days to 2 days in March. Some of the books were short stories but still. The number is wild. Honestly, I was just trying to keep up a reading streak on Storygraph so I was reading at least a page every day. But the thing is, I'm a binge reader. I read entire books at once and then take breaks for days. It's not easy for me to stop reading a book once I get into it. That led to 17 books read 😮‍💨

Out of the 17, 4 were rereads. Comfort rereads made a comeback this month. Ebooks made a hard comeback too. 14/17 were ebooks and the remaining 3 were paperbacks. I was so proud for reading mostly paperbacks in February and it turned back like a boomerang lol. It's because I resumed my KU subscription for a book and decided to check off other TBR books within the month before I cancel it again.

My first book of the month was House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas. The book was okay. I read it bit-by-bit over 2 weeks. It had a veeeery long build up and felt dragged for most of the book. The cause of the plot was something I didn't believe in, honestly. You're telling me Bryce suddenly cares about a random kid? I did not get that vibe from her. That is so out of character. It was clearly plot driven and the story keeps trying to convince us about it but it didn't land. The ending was really good, though. I was blown away. That reveal.. oof.

I read House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas in a weekend. I started it on Friday night and finished it by around noon on Sunday. I read basically all day Saturday like how I used to a decade ago. It was fun. The book was alright. It was an entertaining, but not necessarily great, fantasy series. I wrote my thoughts on Crescent City here. There's apparently going to be a book 4 but I'm not planning to read it.

Continuing the streak, I finished A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer, the 3rd book in the Cursebreakers series. I was disappointed by book 3. I stopped liking all of the characters. I get that they grew up and changed but they were not relatable or nice to read about anymore. I liked one part of the ending. I didn't care about the rest of it. Overall, a meh series.

Disappointed by the last book, I picked up an anticipated read from my TBR, hoping it'll be fun. And Now, Back to You by B. K. Borison had potential but sorely disappointed me. It was my fault for being excited about it just from how much I liked First-Time Caller and not looking at this book's synopsis. The characters basically fall in love over a week. It's very quick. It's cute but it's weird. I didn't like the people they were at some points. The story wasn't as fun as I expected. I'd have loved more meteorological nerd information too but they just geeked over stuff that weren't on the page. It was not it.

After that, I decided to switch gears and read some novellas that have been on my TBR for a while. First, I picked up the ones from a Halloween series that was released last year. Hot For Slayer by Ali Hazelwood sounded great and delivered exactly what it promised. I love that we got another properly sarcastic main character. It was short but the characters' history really made the romance believable. It plays into the author's known tropes that's in every other book of hers but it was annoying because the book was so short. It's a quick and fun read.

Falling by Christina Lauren was disappointing. The trope was not new but could have been done in so many other/new ways. The fact that they took one of the worst and boring ways to play it out... smh. Wasted potential. The punch at the end wasn't punchy at all.

(Copying this from my vlog-ish post because I don't want to rewrite stuff.) Spicy Little Curses by J.T. Geissinger had a good plot and delivered the creepy vibe. There was a lot of plot to fit into 90 pages and, hence, it was fast-paced. I actually liked the plot. I had some idea of where it was going due to foreshadowing but the twist at the end was a surprise. I liked that. Unfortunately, the romance sucked. Zero chemistry, only forced lust. I didn't like how the story ended with a hint about how the characters' have another villain to deal with.

Then I switched to the books in my TBR from a Valentine's series released this year. Death to Valentine's Day by Catherine Cowles was like a condensed version of her novels. The same tropes but the story takes place over a weekend. I think the author shines in her details because without them, the story was average. The killer reveal was more jarring than surprising. The romance was just okay.

Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren was so cool! It's not on par with The Exception to the Rule from 2024's Valentine's romance novella series, but it's close. The romance picked up too quickly for my liking but then it's a short story so there isn't time to do more. The characters were great. The banter was witty and funny. The ending was cute. I enjoyed it so much that I read it again just 2 days after reading it for the first time.

I borrowed Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni from the library after eyeing it for many weeks. It's been on my TBR long enough. I really liked the author's A Palace of Illusions and The Last Queen so I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, I didn't like it that much. I guess I understand the point here—to show regular messy lives that were made even more messy by the Partition—but I just wasn't interested in the characters' lives. I did not care about them at all. I either hated them or was neutral about them. I wasn't a fan of the writing style in this book either—facts about leadership in the introduction to each, other facts about Partition dropped in between for shock factor, and the curious omission of commas in long sentences describing something to show a rush of emotion. It did not work for me.

Another TBR pick that's on KU, Until You by Catharina Maura was surprisingly fun, for the most part. I liked that both the main leads were badass vigilante software engineers. The tech part wasn't really accurate (her "tight lines of code" seemed familiar?!) but I was willing to overlook it. I loved the online-and-offline trope. The relationship development was nice too. Unfortunately, I hated the direction it took in the third act. The dude's history was made to be as painful as possible to everyone involved. Overall, good book but I'd happily cut off the dude's story.

Across the Vanishing Sky by Catherine Cowles was one of my most anticipated reads. Unfortunately, I just didn't like it that much. It had all of the aspects I love in a Catherine Cowles book but it felt kinda flat to read. I liked the characters, I just wasn't a fan of the plot. The romance was meh. My favourite part of this book is that I figured out the villain. This is the first time I figured it out. The author's previous books have taught me to be super suspicious haha. The author: 8(?) me: 1, finally. But it could also mean this story was predictable. I will give the next book a shot even though I'm not excited about the pairing which was hinted at the end of this book.

The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers has been on my TBR for a while. I came across the book while looking for another book with "swap" in the title and it immediately gave me a great vibe. I had a feeling I'd love it. It's a really cool second chance romance where the couple reconnects over annotations in the margins of books without knowing who the other person is. I love that there were multiple layers to their story—both individually and the relationship. The book shows so many sides of each person and it genuinely feels inevitable that they end up together. I actually liked the third act tension because it was necessary to both relationship and character development. The story portrays grief and friendship in a couple of different ways too. I really liked it. I wasn't a fan of the writing tone all the time and it could have been shorter at some places but otherwise, it was on point. It was perfect for me because it had so many themes that I love. This is my second best read of the year so far (Project Hail Mary is the first).

movies & tv shows

I wasn't as much of a screen media fiend as last month but I did watch quite a few things.

• Started March with Mamma Mia! I actually hadn't seen the movie before. I'll be honest, I do not get the appeal. I liked the characters and the songs well enough but I didn't feel like it all worked well together, you know? The songs were quite random at times. The plot wasn't my favourite. It was okay.
• Alchemy of Souls Part 1 and 2. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I only watched it for the first time in March. It feels like it was so long ago. I LOVED this drama. I liked Part 1 well enough but a specific aspect of it kept nagging at me. Part 2 was amazing. I LOVED the main characters in Part 2. Both were badass in their own ways. I loved the unique direction of the romance, I loved the high-stakes of the mage world, and I loved the nod to the red string of fate theory. This drama put me into a viewing slump for quite a while. I kept rewatching scenes of Part 2 because I couldn't move on, it felt like nothing would measure up to it.
• After a week, I watched Boyfriend on Demand. It was not bad but I'm not a fan of it. They commented on game addiction without actually going into it. The romance picked up only in the second half and I honestly wasn't that much of a fan of it. It was a one-time watch.
• I watched Made in Korea, an Indian movie about a Tamil village girl going to Korea. With the way it was promoted, I expected it to be very different than what it was. I hated the backstory. It was too long, unnecessary, and annoying. She was heartbroken to be in Korean even though it was her dream because of how she ended up there. The plot about her starting a restaurant with the grandmom, being able to do so much, without the grandmom's family knowing for months was ridiculous and unreal. She was apparently obsessed with Korea from a young age and watched tons of Kdramas but did not know more than 2 words in the language, and didn't even learn more during her stay. The story wanted to show a found family too but the development with all but 2 people was not shown. The random bouts of crying and sadness did not fit in well. The movie was all over the place and it was annoying. The only aspect I liked was that the reason the girl got obsessed with Korea was due to Queen Sembavalam's story. I do not recommend the movie.
• Rewatched To All The Boys I've Loved Before. It's such a cute movie.
• Watched BTS The Comeback a few days after it was aired. I skipped over all the songs I didn't like lol. I liked a few parts but the vibe was just not it for me.
• Rewatched parts of When The Phone Rings, did not watch the ending of course. It has a great plot with a nonsense ending.
• Rewatched parts of The Queen's Gambit.
• Watched BTS The Return Documentary. This was actually really nice to watch. I loved getting an insight into how they made their album. I was still growing to like the album slowly, by listening to songs again, and had some comments. It was interesting to see that they also had a lot of the same concerns/comments about the use of the legacy name "Arirang", the presence of very less Korean lyrics, the title track being so different from the rest of the album, and more. I expected the album to be different from their older ones because they are different people now and they have to keep trying new things to capture new audiences (mostly global). I was confused about what they were trying to do with the album because of their choice of title track (I would have voted for Body To Body honestly). So, the insight into their process helped me to get what they're trying to do. I still don't like a lot of the songs but I get it now.
• I ended March with a binge-watch of Building the Band, a reality Netflix series where up-and-coming singers form a band only by listening to others' voices. It was a new and intriguing concept—even the judges call the show an experiment. I was unsure of how the result would sound like and I was surprised to find that I genuinely liked most of the bands at the end. I want to save so many of the songs that they performed to my playlist. SZN4 was my favourite band—powerful, passionate vocals. I'm glad to see that despite being (rightly) eliminated early-ish, Midnight 'Til Morning is actually performing at different stages and starting to see success. I also think they have the best band name haha. I loved that most of the members were drama-free and it was mostly a positive, encouraging space to be in. All the drama was brought by one person lol. It's not surprising that her band did not continue after they got eliminated. All of the top 4 bands got signed with labels after the show and they're all still working as bands. The experiment was a success! I really hope there's a season 2.
• And, of course, I saw Project Hail Mary in theatres. The release in Indian theatres was delayed by a week so that it doesn't clash with Dhurandar 2 release and burn. I was so jealous by seeing others' watch the movie before we had the chance to. I am also disappointed that I didn't get to see the movie in an IMAX screen (there's no proper IMAX in this city due to something 😭) but I did enjoy the movie. I'm miffed by a few omissions and changes but overall, solid adaptation. I loved the emotion, humour, and hope on the screen. I'm so glad to see that the movie is doing so well across the world, showing that we do need hopeful movies like this, and I hope that it pushes studios to pick up more of such stories and do more adaptations.
• Not a movie or TV show but I really enjoyed this YouTube video about Singapore's Library System. It's so cool to see that they've put in the effort and money over decades to make it amazing and convenient. This is how we should be using technology to support the society.

blog

I've been blogging based on vibes as is my goal for this year. However, I did end up posting 4 times in March. I didn't follow any schedule, just wrote whenever I wanted to and hit publish.

Since I documented a March 2025 week, I wrote another Margins of the Week to document a March 2026 week. My latest week looked quite different than what it was a year ago. I actually reread the 2025 post and was so nostalgic about that time. I thought it'll be a fun tradition to keep doing, documenting a specific week throughout the years. I don't know if I'll even remember to do it next year but I can make it a thing, you know?

The highlight post of March is definitely Popular Book Genres Seen as "Easy Reading". I finally wrote a discussion post! I always want to do more discussion posts but lately it's been hard because I'm not "in the loop" with trends on social media. Most of the time, these discussion topics are not what people are discussing in the real world, it's only in the online bubble. I wrote this one with a more generic lens, not necessary what's being discussed online. I'm glad I wrote my take on it. I'm so happy that the content resonated with people too, it's gotten more comments than I expected!

I also participated in a bookish meme with My Nope Tropes. Whenever I tell myself that bookish memes don't create that much more engagement, I'm proven incorrect haha. This post got way more comments than I expected as well! It's the power of participating in things that others are doing, I guess.

My blog stats were a bit interesting in March. I don't look at it deeply anymore but I do look at it sometimes with a curious eye and I noticed something.

The number of views has been slowly reducing since January ended, as expected and as it happens every year, and I expected it to keep slowly reducing. However, in March, it suddenly dropped a fair bit. As the image shows, it went from 350-ish to 250-ish. That's a fair bit of drop! Enough that I noticed it after a few days.

I thought that search engines pushed some algorithm update which reduced my blog's ranking or did not show my posts to users much. The reduction in stats affected all my posts together proportionately, it wasn't that a specific post suddenly got 100 views lesser. I thought I'd look into what changes they did after a while if it keeps going, purely out of curiosity.

Before I could get to that, my stats started climbing again! You can clearly see the upward trend at the end of the graph I attached. It's a steady climb back, it's not haphazard or sudden. If we see it week-by-week, the drop was about 30% and now the upward trend week's increase was 50% compared to the previous week. The numbers are mostly affected by search engines, the rest of them don't send me enough traffic to notice trends. I don't know what happened but it's interesting that something has been changed. It's actually weird to see almost 500 views in a day in April. (There used to be a time when it was normal for my blog and now it's an outlier lol.)

Curious to know if anyone else's blog shows a similar drop and steady rise trend?

Speaking of other blogs, here are a few posts that I enjoyed reading in March:

• Fantasy With Friends | Realms and Religion discussion post by Lila.
• BookTok and the Literary Crisis discussion post by Briana.
• Should fandom spaces be gatekept from the masses? by Tasya.
• The Stone Flower: to be or not to be? by Vanya.

hobbies & social life

March was a pretty busy month. I was out almost every weekend, very reminiscent of my social life in Bangalore over a year ago. A lot of it was with new people which was... interesting. Not always great but not bad. It has been taxing on me, though. I need to scale it back a bit, especially with a few people who are not low-energy.

I really missed my college friends so I tried organising a games session online. We had a couple of them and it was really fun! We tried Codenames Duet version and played until 1 am both times haha.

A few of my friends from my old job visited this city for a weekend, mainly to see a concert by Rishab Rikhiram Sharma. I did not know the artist but I went with them and it was.. an interesting experience. I did not know that Hindu classical pop was becoming a thing. I was surprised to see 10k people in the audience with many huge fans. I decided to journal about it and tried art journalling a bit. It's been so long since I last journalled with this style so it was fun to do it again. I really want to spruce up my journal more with different styles of journalling, I want to have fun with it rather than just do stream-of-consciousness writing. This is a start.

My friends stayed for the whole weekend and although we couldn't do too much, I loved being out with them till 2 am. It was my first time seeing the city that late at night and I was really surprised to see the night life here (the cafe and street food type, not the clubbing type). I knew that people stayed out late but I did not expect cafés to be full until closing at 1 am. It was so lovely to hang out with people whose energy I know and who don't suck my energy out. I didn't have to, in essence, put on a face with them. I hung out with them for 3 days/nights straight and it was still recharging and not tiring. It really made me realise what I should look for when I make new friendships because I do see myself being drained like crazy even with one conversation with some people.

On another note, I saw Sania Mirza in person! The legendary tennis player. It was weird to be in the same room as someone who's made history. The interview with her was for about 1.5 hours and I was sat the entire time. It was a riveting conversation. Her point about India being a cricket country who remember to fund other sports only for a few months around the Olympics and yet ask why Indians aren't winning in the Olympics really struck a chord. That comment is stuck in my brain. It's amazing that she's actively trying to fix that by supporting a new generation of tennis players.

All-in-all, it was an eventful month for me.

what about you?

How was your March? What did you read and do? Did you go to any events? What was your favourite moment of the month?