Words of April || Wrap-up

I'm hating the summer weather.

Sorry, I have to start with what's at the top of my mind. The sunshine burns on your skin from 9 to 4 and there's no breeze unless it's threatening to rain. Which it has, multiple times. Unfortunately, it seems to rain only 30% of the time even though there's thunder. It's like the weather is playing with me.

Discounting the weather, April hasn't been too bad. Grab a cup of your favourite drink and let me tell you all about it ☕️

reading

I read 8 books in April. Considering I'm still figuring out my daily routine, it is a good number. I can clearly see my reading reducing, though.

I don't know if it's the new routine(s) or trying to juggle a bunch of things while still seeing where it all fits—I feel like I'm reading less. I'm unable to read for large chunks of time and sometimes barely read for 20 minutes at once. I'm still reading enough in a day but it's scattered throughout which makes it less satisfying.

The 8 books made up 6 ebooks and 3 audiobooks. Yes, no paperbacks! I'm as surprised as you are. I thought I was back on my paperback stride in the past few months but April broke it. I picked up a paperback towards the end of the month but progress on it is slow.

The more surprising fact is the number of audiobooks I listened to. The increase in number is because I've started listening to audiobooks while having breakfast on weekdays. I have breakfast at the office and it's usually my only meal alone. Instead of listening to music or thinking about work before I open my laptop, I'm listening to audiobooks. I get 20-30 minutes of listening time every day through this.

After over 2 months of listening, I finally finished Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan. It's a really nice book but it felt super long. Maybe it's because of my scattered listening but I'm sure it's also because of the book itself. It's only around 450 pages, I'm not sure why it felt so long. I liked the story and the characters, I liked how it showed that both sides of war has good people, and I liked the "twist" that defined the characters. I enjoyed it.

Take It From The Top by Claire Swinarski. I needed a shorter audiobook next so I picked this one. Featuring middle grade characters, the book is about growing up, losing and making friendships, learning to talk about your feelings and accept help. I really liked the theatre camp setting and I liked the plot. Read my full review of Take It From The Top here.

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. This was unnecessarily long. I flew through the first two books but simply couldn't get into this one. I had to lowkey force myself to keep picking it up. The plot had big chunks of unnecessary tours and random things happening which did not contribute to the overall plot-line. This showed that the series was supposed to be a duology. The writing and characters were entertaining enough but it didn't feel like the story was progressing for most of the book. And what was that disjointed ending?

I decided to read all of Ann Liang's books since I loved I Hope This Doesn't Find You and the author has released several books in a short amount of time, all of which have great reviews. This Time It's Real by Ann Liang was my first pick. Although the story is different from I Hope This Doesn't Find You, the tone and overall vibe was similar. I liked how the story started in a unique way. I liked the characters and enjoyed the story. I liked the slightly open ending too. It was a nice and quick read.

After that, I immediately started reading A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang. This is a fantasy story, unlike the previous two contemporaries. I was curious about how it would be but went in expecting to at least enjoy the writing. The story was a banger. I loved the entire plot-line, I liked how it felt like a cautionary folktale at the end, and I loved the lesson of the story. The characters were charming and I was invested in all of their stories. I think I was supposed to feel for the main character and her lover the most but I surprisingly felt a lot for the "villain". I couldn't stop thinking about the way his story ended and it was on my mind for days. I needed a break from Ann Liang after that.

The Way We Collide by Tia Louise. Romance is always an easy choice when in need of a break from heavy stories. Unfortunately, it's not easy to find great romance books quickly. This was a disappointment. I almost DNFed it in chapter 1 itself but decided to give it a shot despite the meh beginning. It did not redeem itself. I should really listen to my instincts more often and stop giving books more chances to disappoint.

Can You Keep A Secret? by Jo Lovelett. Another audiobook, it was a random pick from the Libro.fm ALC offerings. Although I realized that the story might not be great within the first two chapters, I kept listening simply because the accent was interesting. The story is set in Bristol and the narrator has a heavy accent, way more than the British I expect. The story was a total let down, though. The secret was big but could have been dealt with in many better ways. I got annoyed with how many times the characters said "I love you" and "sorry" after causing huge messes. The characters were in their 30s and 40s but they didn't act mature. Overall, I don't recommend the book.

The Golden Raven by Nora Sakavic. I didn't even know the 5th book of The Foxhole Court series released back in February until my friend found out and told me. I really need to keep tabs on this series and author lol. This book kept me HOOKED. So many things kept happening and it was sooo painful. I'm going to rereading book 4 and book 5 again because I feel like I missed so much reading this for the first time. I was just trying to grasp everything that happened and didn't have time to read between the lines.

I tried the audiobook of Permission to Rest by Ashley Neese but quickly realized that it was the type of non-fiction I hate—all talk and explaining different studies but no real actionable advice—and stopped it.

I'm currently reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki but it's going really slowly. Although I like the plot and the commentary, the writing is sooo boring. The main character is also boring. It's a struggle to read 20 pages in one day. I'm persevering, though. I'll share my thoughts in the next wrap up.

I'm also currently reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron but I'm not sure if I would consider it as a regular book since it's technically a course and I'm going to be reading it over several weeks. I'll talk more about this in the last section of the post.

blogging

I'm flying through blogging this month. Working earlier hours and having the entire evening to myself is doing wonders for my writing. I'm currently 3 posts ahead but I was briefly 4 posts ahead twice in April.

I've been writing often and focusing on not cutting down my ideas. Many times over the years, I've discarded ideas because I don't know if I can do them well or if they'll fit in with the rest of the content on this blog. Although I allowed this blog to be "nicheless", there were some things that I simply didn't write because I thought it was silly or useless.

Now, I'm in my "why not" phase. Instead of thinking about why I should write a post, I'm only thinking of why not. If the reasons aren't good enough, and they usually aren't, I write the post. I'm loving this phase because it's adding a totally new layer of fun into this hobby. Who cares if no one cares about the post, as long as I have fun writing it, right?

I already have all the posts ready for May and I cannot wait for you to read them. All of them were written in a frenzy—I thought of the idea and had the whole post written within 3 days. For the first time in over a year, none of the month's posts will be a book review.

For the upcoming months, I already have a few ideas in mind. I'm still going to write when the mood strikes but I've got ideas ready for whenever it does, and I'm open to new ideas instead of sticking to the planned ones.

In case you missed it, here are April's posts:

• Words of March — All about moving and my new job.
• Melo Movie Kdrama Review — A rant review and lamenting that none of the new Kdramas seem to hit anymore.
• How I Journal — One of the posts that I wrote in a frenzy and loved.
• Take It From The Top Book Review — I don't frequently read middle grade books but this was cute.

I also wrote two newsletters on Substack:

• I don't want to be an entrepreneur.
• The business of hopes and dreams.

In May, I hope to keep my blogging streak up and write whatever interests me at the moment. I'm not doing great with keeping up with other blogs but it's partly because I saw a couple of more bloggers step back from blogging. While I understand, I feel like this community is getting smaller and I'm sad about it.

Although Substack is nice and all, I still love reading people's blogs which reflect their personality whereas Subtack allows limited customisations. Reading something on a separate blog/website is still a whole different experience than reading a post on Substack.

I'm a tad annoyed with Substack currently because Substack has started to feel like an echo chamber. Is it just me or are the writers on it slowly writing about the same things or writing similar posts? I'm sure it's partly the algorithm and creators are always welcome to try out ideas they're inspired by, but as a reader, it doesn't feel like I'm reading "good content" there as much anymore. I also don't like that it's harder to explore and find new Substacks because of how the notes algorithm works.

Somewhere in the mid of April, I uninstalled the Substack app from my phone. Reading articles on the browser brings back the blog feel and reduces the social media feel of the platform. I still like reading from the people I follow but I'm going to see the notes feed only once in a blue moon.

Speaking of blogging, here are couple of posts that talk about my love for the hobby:

• My Blog Aesthetic || On Creating It, Maintenance, & More ✨
• How to Make Your Blog Posts More Readable

content consumed

Blogs

• Finding My Planner Peace // An In Depth Look Into The Systems That Keep Me Organised
• Oh My Ghost || A Comfort Hug And Giggle Worthy K-Drama Review
• Why did Orchids Climb trees?

Newsletters

• The epidemic of constant communication.
• I want to hold the proof of my experiences in my own two hands.
• Why do we consider travelling as “living” when it’s the opposite?
• I've Never Read 100 Books In A Year
• How to be a good friend when no one's hanging out anymore

TV Shows

• Binged Record of Youth Kdrama in 2 days. I don't think it was a great show, it seemed to be focused on showing off Park Bo-gum than focusing on the plot or characters. There was enough focus on the plot to be okay, though. I didn't mind it but I probably won't remember the drama in a few months. This review of Record of Youth fairly summarizes my thoughts.
• Continued my Modern Family rewatch. I'm in season 7 now. Some episodes are starting to be over-the-top unlike the earlier comedic style but there are still good episodes.

life

I started The Artist's Way (again)! I bought the book over 2 years ago and tried it then but stopped in week 2. It felt like too much and I was doing it alone so I didn't have much motivation to keep up with it. After seeing it referenced a LOT online recently, I decided to try it again. This is a good time to do it too because I'm in a new city and my weekends aren't full like they used to be.

Instead of doing it alone, I roped in a few friends from college to do it with me. We collectively decided to do one chapter in 2 weeks, giving us more time to do the activities while balancing other things in life. I'm also not trying to do everything that it asks for, instead doing it the bare minimum way.

It's worked so far. I've managed to wake up early to write morning pages every day and somewhat did the Artist's date. The latter is the one that I'm taking the most leeway with. Instead of truly making a "date" out of it, I'm just trying to play around with new things for a while. I doodled for the first time in years and I tried participated in the clay modeling event at work!

I've been making an iced matcha latte every weekend morning, experimenting with the amounts and the methods. One morning, I made the best drink so far and genuinely loved every sip of it. I added cold milk, ice, and a bit of honey first. Then, I poured in the whisked matcha liquid. It created a beautiful gradient and tasted amazing. I'm so proud of myself 🥹

Work is going on as usual. My workload is slowly increasing because I'm taking on more responsibilities and finally properly contributing. Although the process of learning something new and trying things out is annoying, the satisfaction from having figured it out is nice.

I finally added regular workouts to my routine again! I was fairly good at attending Zumba classes twice a week and playing badminton 3 days a week. I miss running, though. I don't know how to fit it in my routine yet and the timings of the nearby park is annoying. It closes at 6pm and I reach home from office only around 6. I might have to wake up even earlier to do morning pages and then go for a run in the weekdays. Considering I leave for work at 8:30, it means I'll have to wake up at 6am. I'm not good at waking up that early 🥲 I'll see what to do.

how was your April?

What did you do? What did you read? Did you try anything new? Tell me in the comments!