Words of November || Wrap-up

And just like that, we're at the last stretch of 2024.

I want to say that November was less busy and stressful than October, but I can't. It was a tad better but my days flew by in a frenzy and the month felt like two months. Honestly, I need to flip through my calendar and Snapchat memories to see what actually happened in November that I can talk about.

Grab a cup of your favourite cosy beverage and settle in while I take you through my November ☕️

words on books

Similar to October, I read 8 books in November. In fact, I thought I read only 2-3 but my Storygraph says 7. I didn't have the mental space to keep track of how much I was reading. I'm glad I read 7 books, though. It means that I somehow, somewhere, found time to read. Out of the 7 books, 7 were ebooks and 1 was a paperback. 1 was a reread.

I'm also still in the middle of War & Peace. I read about 200 pages in the first week of November and planned to read 100 pages every week after that but didn't pick it up again. So, I'm on page 475. I will read a bit in December but I definitely am not looking at finishing it any time soon. My friend said that War & Peace is like wine and should be enjoyed slowly which sounds right.

The first book of the month was Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. It was on my TBR for a long time so I'm glad I finally picked it up. It didn't blow me away but it was interesting and cute. I liked the main character who had only half a soul but was still better than half the people. There was a supernatural plotline with a Faerie villain which was interesting. I absolutely loved the epilogue.

My only paperback read was The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson. I had high expectations and while it was pretty interesting with many twists, I found parts of it similar to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. The author seems to like stuffing several twists at the end which change the entire trajectory and make the main characters morally grey. This was interesting enough but I didn't find it special.

Off Camera by Chelsea Curto was a random pick from the Kindle Unlimited library. I quite enjoyed the book. I did not expect to like it so much. I really liked the main characters. I loved how the romance had layers. It has one of my favourite tropes of main characters connecting online and offline. Despite the previous connection, the leads bonded anew in person and learnt about each other. The story was super comforting and nice.

Passenger Princess by Morgan Elizabeth was another random pick from KU. I have liked a couple of the author's books and decided to try this one. It was really cute! It was interesting with a sunshine/grumpy and celebrity romance. I especially liked the main character Ava—she was an inspiration. I would have liked a little more depth to the characters but it was a fun book regardless. Check out my full review here.

If This Was a Movie by Morgan Elizabeth is the next book in the same series as Passenger Princess. It follows one of Ava's best friends Jules who ghosted a guy she really liked because she thought he was a married man. Turns out that he wasn't and they get another chance when they cross paths again. I didn't like this book as much. It was okay but I'll soon forget about it.

The Syndicater by RuNyx. Finally! I got this at 9 AM my time on the release day and read the entire book the same day. It was very satisfying to see all the stories syncing and the loose ends tying up. I didn't like the writing of this book as much as the others because I think it could have been structured better. However, I still like the plot and the characters. I loved certain parts of the book too.

I went on Twitter after reading the book for something else and saw a commentary on how RuNyx got so much undeserved hate. From what I understood, a lot of fans hated that the last book was short (400 pages) considering that they waited two years for it. The tweet poster mentioned how they'd have quit if they went through what the author did and RuNyx doesn't owe her fans anything. I agree with the latter.

I believe that because RuNyx is a self-published author who tries to connect with her fans to grow her popularity. She has shared a lot of her personal life and struggles while maintaining anonymity. I think that many fans took her and her work for granted because they know so much about her life and have supported her work for years.

Honestly, I don't know if I would have finished the series if I was in her place either. I'm happy we got the last book and I don't mind if it's unpolished. It's still a great book and a great series. I'm even more happy that she's published it through KU instead of taking her books off KU after they became popular like other authors have done.

The next day, I checked out RuNyx's Instagram account and saw from her stories that her book became #1 on the Kindle store in several countries. In fact, The Syndicater was #1 in the Kindle India store as well. I love the Dark Verse series so much and until then I thought that her fan base, while obsessive, was still small because she's an indie author. But apparently not! Love that for her.

After The Syndicater, I was in the mood for a similar book and found A Love Most Fatal by Kath Richards on KU. It was so nice! Unlike most mafia romance books, the woman is the mafia boss here and the man is a regular guy who is innocent. The guy is actually a math teacher! I loved how the two very different people bonded and complemented each other. I liked how when his life was threatened, she protected him and he bonded with her family too. Overall, lovely book. I will be reading the sequel whenever it is out.

I don't have any specific reading goals for December. It's the last month and I don't want to worry about things, especially about reading. I already completed my 2024 reading goal of 100 books and will not be raising it. The fact that I read so many books while maintaining everything else in life is a feat so I won't be greedy for more.

However, I do have some hopes/wishes for December. I want to read a chunk of War & Peace, finish The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (which is my reader group's first group annotation project), and read a couple of books that I've borrowed from friends. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to read because the first half of December is always stressful and the last half has brought sudden disasters at work for the last 3 years. We'll see.

My Kindle has been breaking down for the last few months and is not able to keep up with my reading. For the 6 ebooks I read in November, I had to charge the Kindle thrice. Each full charge takes about 6 hours right now. The Kindle has become super slow as well. The screen has been glitching a lot, making me pause reading because the screen would stop responding for 15 minutes.

Considering how much I read, I can't manage with the above. So, I bought the new Kindle Paperwhite in raspberry colour! I wasn't particular about the model and waited for a while for the stock to come in Amazon India but it wasn't coming. Finally, I checked Amazon US, noticed the models, and asked my friend who's coming soon if she could bring a Kindle for me. She initially said she couldn't but later said she can 🥹

Meanwhile, even though she hadn't said yes, I did some research on the models anyway so that I'd know what to buy when they dropped in India. My favourite Kindle colour is the Sage one from a couple of years back. The 2024 Basic Kindle in Matcha was similar and I loved it. I really wanted that colour but I wanted the Paperwhite for everything else like sharpness, responsiveness, and warm light. I didn't have a problem with the budget.

I watched a ton of videos and reviews and the ones that said that the Basic Kindle is much easier to carry were swaying me. I love how portable my current Kindle is (6") and wondered if the extra inch really makes it hard to carry. In the end, when my friend asked me which Kindle I wanted, I chose the Paperwhite. My palm is 7" so I don't think holding the Paperwhite would be that hard for me. I'm also planning to get a clear case and a pop socket for it. So, I should be good. She bought it for me in the Black Friday sale so the price was decent too.

My friend is arriving in a few days with both my Kindle and the Page Anchor I bought 6 months back. I can't wait to have both of them in my hands!

words on blogging

I don't have much to say in this section. My blogging wasn't great in November and I worked on posts right before they went live. I've thought about reposting the Fallen movie review before and I finally did it to give myself a break from worrying about blogging.

Last month, I said that I want to consistently post until the end of the year because this is the first time in many years that I haven't taken a break from posting. Of course, I don't post as frequently as I used to but it's still an effort to post consistently. Throughout 2024, I've managed to post once every 8 days and I don't want to break that streak so close to the end of the year.

In November, the above was running through my head all the time. Honestly, I almost forgot that I had to write blog posts for a couple of weeks. I almost forgot that I run a blog. So, now that November is over, I'm glad that I was able to post on time. I didn't have the energy to worry about writing a good post.

I've been telling myself over and over that I don't need to write perfect blog posts or the most interesting things. It's enough that I'm still blogging almost 9 years after I started. It's enough that I'm still posting regularly. It's enough that I'm taking some time in my days to spend doing something I like even though it doesn't create an output that is considered worthy in capitalism's gaze.

In case you missed them, here are the November posts:

• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara || Book Review
• Fallen: movie review || ALL THE RANTS
• Passenger Princess by Morgan Elizabeth || Book Review

In December, I'm planning to post 5 blog posts. That is 1 more than what I usually post. I'm hoping that I'll have a bit more time to myself in the month and can work on blogging properly. I don't know what I'll post exactly but I'll come up with something. I was actually very tempted to do blogmas but I know that it's simply not possible for me with my current life. Maybe some day in the future.

After years of my stats only increasing, 2024 is the first year where I stats dropped like crazy. This blog got 25k views in January 2024 which dropped to 15k in February. In November, the blog got about 11k views. It's still much more than a lot of blogs but I can't see it as a lot when the graph still shows a huge bar from just a year back.

However, I'm interested to see if something I noticed for the last several years will still hold true. Throughout my 9 years of blogging, I've noticed that my blog tends to get more views in December and January. The stats starts increasing a bit in November and become a lot in December and January before dropping to the regular level in February.

Although I've posted regularly in 2024, I haven't promoted my blog a lot or worked on ways to get more traffic. So, I'm waiting to see if the spike in stats in Dec & Jan will still happen. I'll let you know next month!

Meanwhile, check out some of my posts from past Decembers!

• 10 Interesting Reading Challenge Ideas
• My Blogging Journey

content consumed

Blog Posts

• Vanya wrote about Tambli which I loved.
• Line judged whether Gooreads recommendations are any good.
• Cait shared bookish gift ideas perfect for this time of the year.
• The Orangutan Librarian shared why they love to read book reviews on blogs.

YouTube Videos

• A friend shared this video on BookTok and Anti-Intellectualism (ft. "the booktokers who don't read") which showed nuanced opinions that I find most content lacking.
• I really liked Jared Henderson's video on Why everyone stopped reading which gave me material for a post that I have in the back of my mind.

TV Shows

• I finally watched Queen of Tears Kdrama. I always thought it was a sad drama because of the title and plot but it turned out to be pretty funny. Sure, it got really sad later, but it wasn't as sad as I was expecting. It was a nice drama to binge-watch. Some parts, especially towards the ending, were very draggy though.
• Right before the last episodes released, I started Family by Choice Kdrama. It was so nice! Well, in the beginning. I really liked most of the drama. I loved the bond of the main 3 characters throughout the show. I hated how the boys went through so much pain for no reason. I loved how the father was always supportive and present for his kids. I didn't like the romance and how the show ended, though. The romance was weird to me. It was weird how they finally started dating. I didn't like that, in the last ep, they rushed for a happy ending and created another romance (that wasn't believable) for it.

I'm excited for Zoe Sugg and fam's Vlogmas this month. Their Vlogust became a part of my daily life in August, making my mornings better, so I can't wait for the same with Vlogmas.

words on life

In the end of October, I bought a pair of headphones and forgot to share my thoughts on them in the October wrap-up. Well, it's fine because now I can talk with some more experience.

I got the Sony WH-1000xm5 headphones and love it. I've actually loved the design of the xm4 for years and was torn between the two models while buying. Finally, I just decided to go with the newer ones with a tad better noise cancellation even though I love the xm4 design way more.

I already had the Sony WH-CH510 which still worked well but I really wanted a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. It's really hard to live in India without a noise-cancelling device because there are sooo many noises here. We live in close proximity and there are too many sounds.

I live near a main road with a major signal and the vehicle noises drive me crazy at times. Walking and commuting is also hard without something to reduce the noise. I'm also a person who doesn't like loud noises and easily gets a headache. So, it helps to have something to block the noise and replace it with soothing melodies.

The headphones aren't a total need for me because I do have the AirPods Pro which have similar noise cancellation as the xm5. However, I wanted a pair of headphones because I don't like plugging my ears all the time. Headphones also have a lovely sound quality that earbuds don't reproduce which I like.

I've been using the xm5 pair regularly for over a month and I really like it. Of course, there are some airpods features that I miss like the new head gesture feature and control from both sides. However, the headphones are quite convenient. I like the swipe controls and the cushioning. I like that they block noise almost as well as the AirPods Pro without plugging my ears.

The battery life is amazing. Till now, despite my old Sony WH-CH510 pair being 4 years old, it's battery life is longer than my airpods. So, I knew that the new pair of Sony headphones would have a great battery life too and it didn't disappoint. I think I've charged it maybe thrice so far and it's only for short periods of time whenever I wasn't using them in the office.

The headphones come with a Sony app with a ton of features which sounded interesting in concept and I had them turned on but within a few days, I turned all of them off. It looks like those features were built with the assumption that most people would use the headphones while being stationary and focused. I mainly use them during commute or at the office where I frequently remove them to talk to people. Those features actually became inconvenient.

I also am annoyed by the indication sounds that the headphones make. I know that there's one sound for when the battery reduces (although, I think it's an overkill to hear those sounds for every 10% drop starting 90%) but there are some other times I heard the sound and couldn't figure out why. I thought they were for notifications but they weren't and I still haven't figured out their meaning. Weird that the app doesn't have a guide for this. How am I supposed to know why my music is paused for a second to play two random pings?

Overall, I really like them. I still use my airpods sometimes. However, I like that I'm not restricted to use them all the time.

Speaking of the noise cancellation stuff, I'm considering buying the Loop Earplugs. I've been seeing their ads for a while but didn't consider them because I'm usually listening to music anyway. However, after reading Clo's experience using them, I noticed how there are so many instances (especially in the office) when I'd like to reduce the noise (we have an open floor plan) without cutting everything off. The Loop ones can help with that. The only con is that I don't want to plug my ears all the time. I'll consider for a while longer.

In other news, winter is finally setting in in Bangalore. I've started wearing light jackets all the time and wearing slippers at home. It's still not very cold compared to many places but it's just a tad chilly which I'm glad about. We've had summer weather for way too long and are overdue for cold weather. I like that my city gets cold without getting too cold so it's perfect for light layering.

However, December started with another very rainy few days. As I write this, it has been pouring or drizzling all day with only a few tiny breaks. Another cyclone is passing by in the Bay of Bengal side so until it's gone, we're going to have this weather.

With winter, my eczema problems have increased with ferocity. I have so many different dry spots (between my fingers, on the sides of my ears, both elbows, the back of my ears) and I'm moisturizing my skin 4 times a day. I'm going to start carrying lotion with me all the time because it doesn't seem to get better fast. Jelly helps but I don't like putting it all the time so I'm trying out combinations to make my skin better. At least I can wear jackets to cover my arms because I don't like seeing them right now.

I'm taking a break from badminton too. My right hand has been hurting randomly for a while and it became worse while playing one day. I couldn't properly receive or hit the shuttle. My right elbow got a persistent ache. I've seen badminton injuries becoming really bad for my friends so I decided to take a while off.

That day, I saw myself in the mirror and noticed that my right arm doesn't fully straighten like my left arm. It might be due to badminton or my career where I type on a laptop all day or both. The problem is that I don't know since when it's been like this. I'm doing stretches often hoping that it'll slowly get better. My hand doesn't hurt now unless I fully try to straighten it. If it doesn't improve in a few weeks, I'll go to a doctor.

Life doesn't stop for minor aches and problems, even if we have multiple. I've been working a ton and meeting friends when I can. One day, I went to a friend's place to watch the League of Legends World Cup finals with them. I'm not even into the game and it's been years since my short stint with it. But I was bored so I went to hangout with them.

On another day, I met my reader friends for lunch on an impromptu plan. We then went to Vaish's home and digitised her book collection so that the next time we want to read something, we can see if she has it before buying it. Two of my friends have mini libraries at home so having an excel with their book lists is a must 😂

I don't have very big plans in December. It is my birthday month but I'm not into making a big deal of my birthday so I'll probably just meet friends and have good food. Other that that, my month is going to be more of the same things.

It feels like I'm losing time and being busy in the present while losing focus of what I really want to do. So, to try to make sense of my days and have some sort of to-do list that reminds me to work on what's important, I'm trying bullet journalling again. I quit the system years back after graduating college and the during the pandemic because I didn't have enough to add in it.

Over the last few years, I've used technology to fill in the gaps and be organized. I even wrote a whole post on my digital organization system last year. I still find my digital system very convenient but it's evident that I'm not working on long-term things. I'm going with the flow instead of consciously going in a direction I like. Something has got to change.

After seeing the super pretty 2025 Factor Notes planner that Vaish got, I considered getting it as well. I added it to cart and almost bought it too. Before buying, I took a step back and watched a couple of videos on it again and realized that most of those pages are not useful for me.

I started thinking about what my ideal planner would have and decided to make my own in a bullet journal. I've used the bullet journal system for years and sweared by it throughout my bachelor's degree. Maybe it didn't work for a while and maybe the exact same setup won't work for me again, but it doesn't mean that the entire system will never help again.

It's easier to start new things in December because it's like a trial period before the new year starts. Starting things with the new year adds too many expectations and can set us up for failure. When I first started bullet journalling, I tried the system on a random notebook for a month before buying a notebook and sticking to it for real. I'm doing the same thing now as well.

I know that my days are usually almost fully taken up by work but the point is to take at least 30 minutes to do things we like. The problem I'm having is that I use my digital system to keep track of what I have to do and not what I want to do.

On the morning of 1st of December, I quickly set up a rough monthly page and a tiny weekly section. Mainly, I'm going to try setting daily to-do lists and see if I can make them work. If I'm able to keep up with using the bullet journal fairly often and it helps me plan my days, I'll set up proper pages next month.

I will still be using my digital system as well. I used to track my expenses, period cycle, birthdays etc. on the bullet journal earlier and had separate pages for them. Now, they are in digital apps and those are so convenient to use so I won't be tracking those to the bullet journal.

The way I'm envisioning my bullet journal usage is that it'll help m for plan things that I want to do but don't find the time for. So, I'll plan my months, weeks, and days with everything and add one or two things I like. If it makes sense, I'll create reminders to add those tasks on my phone so that they're with me throughout the day since I won't carry a notebook with me.

So, that's my one thing for December. I'll let you know how it goes!

chat with me!

How was your November? Did you go anywhere or do anything special? What are you looking forward to in December? Are you planning to try or do anything new this month? Have you started reflecting on the year and planning for next year?