Words of July || Wrap-up

Every few months, there is a month that flies by in almost a week and all you can recall is that you were busy with so many things that you didn't have time to breathe. July was that for me.

In all honestly, July wasn't too bad. The first 3 weeks were so harrowing that my bones ached for a vacation. Then I went on a brilliant vacation that redeemed the month.

I don't have too much to talk about besides the trip so grab a drink and let me catch you up on my July ☕️

words on books

I read 6 books in May, 17 books in June, and it went back down to 9 books in July. My reading graph on Storygraph looks funny with 2 mountains in the last few months 😂

Out of the 9 books, 3 were paperbacks and 6 were ebooks. 5 were romance, all by the same author. And, surprisingly, the count doesn't include any rereads because I didn't reread any book fully! I reread P. S. You're Intolerable partially so I didn't count it.

Another interesting fact is that 4 of those reads were read in 2 days so it took me the rest of the month to read the other 5. Yeah, my reading wasn't great in July.

Here are quick thoughts on the books:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery was SO CUTE. I loved the headstrong, stubborn, and passionate Anne. I loved how she charmed everyone around her despite her faults. I wasn't going to write a full review initially but the book stayed on my mind for weeks and I finally wrote a review which will be up soon.

Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco. The writing style still gave me a headache. I will admit, the end of the series was pretty nice. The timelines finally matched up so that we saw a reference in the present and the event playing out in the past side-by-side. I liked how the ending came full circle. I did not like the epilogue because it felt like the author couldn't choose between a tragic but happy ending and a proper happy ending. Overall, I found it meh. The writing style wasn't for me.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. This has been waiting on my shelf for a while so I finally picked it up. It's a very popular book so I expected a lot. It follows a first-generation Indian-American through the first 30 or so years of his life. He has a bunch of identity issues due to his unique name above all the regular immigrant issues. It reads like any other literature novel that follows the timeline in a straight fashion. The entire book is tinged with sadness. It would mean a lot more to Indian immigrants, I think, but I found it to be a regular good book.

Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I liked the first two books of the author's The Inheritance Games series but this fell flat for me. It tried to be interesting so badly with the timeline shifts thrown in every chapter and an "edgy" main character from the "wrong" side of town, but it wasn't. I was bored and it put me to sleep once. I won't be continuing this series.

Last month, I said that I might binge Ali Hazelwood's books because I want to understand the hype. I ended up reading many in a couple of days.

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood was not a good start. I liked the concept but I didn't like the way the woman's career was impacted by the man. I didn't like how she reduced to a blubbering fool many times. I didn't like the guy either. The way the lead code switched personalities based on the setting was kinda interesting but the reasoning for it stayed shallow. There was so much potential to delve into how and why most women do this in at least some capacity but it wasn't touched upon.

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood was better. I liked that the guy was a disaster at social situations and wasn't a suave perfect romantic interest. It was fun how they were friends online under pseudonyms running popular science accounts. I didn't like how their careers were intertwined, though. The romance could've been better too.

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood is the best Hazelwood book I've read so far. This was so good! I did NOT expect to be so invested in the story. The lead is a chess genius who stopped playing due to her father and has picked it up again to make money to support her family. The romantic interest is another chess genius whom she easily wiped the floor with on her first match back after years. The pining, the tension, and the required rivalry were great. I loved the ending too.

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood was disappointing. It did not help that I read it after Check & Mate which was much better. I liked that the lead was on the autism spectrum and we read about her without a diagnosis attached—she was a woman living a regular life whose personality is a tad different, that's it. I didn't like the romance, though. I did not like the guy. This book was much spicier than other books which was fine but the romance just did not hit it for me.

Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood. This is the anthology which has 3 stories following 3 best friends falling in love one after the other. It would have been alright if the writing style wasn't what it was. We start with one chapter in the middle of the story as a prologue and then chapter 1 goes back weeks/months to start from the beginning. The stories were pretty meh too. The only thing I liked was how all the romantic interests bonded and became best friends.

Hazelwood's books are a good example of how you can create several different stories with the same basic ideas. All of her books have huge men (their size is brought up many times) and leads who are geniuses in their fields. Every story starts with the woman assuming that the man hates her for some reason and avoiding the man until the man is forced to confess or clear the air and the woman is shocked. In all of the full-length novels (that I've read so far), the characters' careers are intertwined in some way due to which they can't escape each other.

Despite having those aspects in common, the stories are quite different. And clearly, Hazelwood is having a successful career even though everyone can see the commonality! Hazelwood also openly acknowledges that all her stories start as fan fiction.

I will read The Bride this month and let you know how it is. It's hyped but I'm a little wary of it since most of Hazelwood's books have been meh for me. Also, I'm not a fan of supernatural romances. Sooo, we'll see.

I was also considering starting War & Peace in July but when I said so to my close reader friends, their reactions made me postpone it. They were so vehemently against it, I couldn't help but laugh. One of them said that she was exhausted just watching me read huge books 😂

Also, watching Naemi take her time with W&P so that she can find out more about the Napoleonic wars and such related to the story is making me think about my reading timeline as well. Maybe I should take my time with it and buddy read or read it with a group too. What if I don't appreciate the book fully because I simply read it like any other fiction? Sigh.

What do you think? How should I read W&P?

words on the blog

When July began, I was 3 posts ahead and doing well. I was a little more ahead too because I started working on a post for August well beforehand because I had the time. And then work became a lot in July and messed up my rhythm.

I finished my blogging goal for the year in June and did not increase it so I'm currently blogging with no specific goal to hit. I don't think that it's the reason my blogging rhythm slowed down. I'm pretty sure it's because of work and life because even my reading was reduced in July.

I'm currently one post ahead which isn't bad. Behind even a little bit ahead is good. The reason I worked hard to get 3 posts ahead was to be prepared for such months when I wouldn't be able to blog much. I'm taking it as a good sign that my earlier work paid off and I'm not stressed about posting on the blog despite not having much time for it.

After only 2 consecutive weeks of posting on Fridays, I decided to go back to posting once every 8 days. I don't want to stick to a specific posting day and worry about whether my post is receiving fewer views because of the day I chose. The extra day makes a lot of difference, too. I still post 4 times a month but it feels like I have enough time to write each post well.

My June Wrap-up received over 15 comments, mostly because of my ramble on blogging, and I was floored about it. The last time a post received so many comments was in December, I think. It simply doesn't happen as often nowadays.

I did not expect so many of y'all to relate and take the time to compliment my content. It reassured me that I'm not the only one feeling this way. The compliments felt amazing too and I am more determined to write what I'm excited about without worrying about the likeability of my posts.

I've been considering making my old blog public again because I sometimes want to refer to them while talking. It also has a ton of good content which is just sitting idle now. The only other option is to post them again but I don't feel like doing that because then I would edit it to fit my current voice and the initial charm would be lost. I'm just considering it for now, I don't know if I'll do it. The thought just runs in the back of my head at times.

Blog stats have been steadily declining for several months and July was no different. However, my ad earnings suddenly dropped to almost half, which is weird. I'm not sure if it's because the stats dropped below a certain number or if it's something else. Anyway, August is the last month with ads. I'm eagerly waiting for the contract to end.

In case you missed them, here's what I posted in July:

• My review of Anna Karenina is finally up. As I mentioned last month, my book reviews are becoming a bit more personal and may include my thought tangents. This review is the first of them.
• Mid-Year Notes 2024. I spent a whole week writing this, lol. The post is mostly for me to use as a reflection activity and also for my future self to look back on so I wrote a lot.
• My review of What You Are Looking For is in the Library is the second of the personal-ish reviews. This is also one of the best books I've read in 2024 so far.

Here are a couple of my older posts that you should check out because they don't deserve to gather dust in the archives 😂

• My Digital Organization System || Requirements, Tools, and Habits
• 20 Monthly Wrap-Up Ideas For Your Blog + Bonus Tips

content consumed

Blog Posts

• Krysta wrote a discussion post on whether authors/marketers can ask reviewers to withhold or delay negative reviews which brought up a lot of laws I didn't know existed.
• Candice wrote about bringing back hobbies to enrich life and not as side hustles.
• Alia discussed the third book syndrome.
• Alia also wrote a fun post recommending books based on Disney movies.
• Clo spoke about curating bookshelves and how they should spark joy.

YouTube videos

• I loved Drew Gooden's video titled "AI is ruining the internet." It was funny, on point, and well-researched.
• My friends insisted that I watch Shashi Tharoor's speech about Britain owing reparations and I agree that it was brilliantly done. The points he brought up, how he spoke against previous points by others, and especially the comedic burns sprinkled in the speech made it memorable. Do watch it!
• Kariza posted a video on "the art of showing up" and I absolutely loved it. The outro is *chef's kiss.*

TV shows

• I've been rewatching Brooklyn Nine-Nine in my free time over the past two months. I reached Season 8 and stopped, lol. I love the show but in S8E1 it tries to be so extra woke that there's no real plot. The vibes of the show are off in that season too. It's because of this that I haven't watched S9 yet despite rewatching the show so many times—I can't get through S8 to go to S9.
• My friends and I listened to Aao Milo Chalo during our vacation because it's the perfect road trip song and it made me nostalgic for the movie the song is from. So I rewatched Jab We Met and, of course, loved it to bits. I miss those days of brilliant Bollywood movies. Such movies are rare now.
• I started watching A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. I'm only a couple of episodes in currently but it's looking good. I like that the show has the same slightly eerie and keep-you-on-your-edge-with-fear-and-anticipation vibe as the books.

words on life & other stuff

The highlight of the month was my Ladakh trip. There's nothing else that will come close to it. I met friends a couple of times and had fun but the trip overshadows it all. I thought about writing a separate post on it but that's a lot of effort and will take time so here's a quick-ish summary 😂

My colleagues and I had been planning a North India trip for a while. Unfortunately, it's rainy season now and it's raining pretty much everywhere. We were looking for any place where it wouldn't rain and landed on Ladakh. We kinda procrastinated on booking things, though, because of work stresses and being generally busy.

We booked the tickets literally 5 days before we were to leave. A couple of my college friends joined in at the last minute because they really wanted to visit Ladakh so the group became a mix of my colleagues and college friends. I was a little apprehensive about whether they would get along but figured that it would be fine.

Well, it was more fine. Everyone got along well and we had such a good time. We were all anxious about altitude sickness and carried a ton of meds. Thankfully, none of us had major issues. A friend and I felt queasy because of motion sickness due to hairpin bends but otherwise, we were okay.

The altitude is no joke, though. The government mandates that all tourists rest for an entire day without doing any activities to adjust well and only go higher after 48 hours in Leh. That is a good rule. All of us felt breathless just by climbing a few stairs the first day. It took the entire day for my heartbeat to go back to the regular average. The slightest fast movement would raise it to 100 beats/min. We spent the first day napping, playing board/card games, admiring the views from our stay, and generally resting in our PJs.

For a little context: Ladakh is a mostly desert state that is surrounded by mountains on all 4 sides and is at a high elevation. In fact, pilots need special training to fly planes to Leh airport since it's so tricky being surrounded by high mountains. We visited 3 places in Ladakh—Leh, Nubra Valley, and Pangong Tso.

We had the most beautiful trip ever. All of our stays were great, we saw amazing views, and had the best road trips. There is so much beauty to appreciate in Ladakh.

The Pangong Tso Lake is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The lake is about 180 km long with 1/3rd being in Ladakh, India and the rest falling in Tibet. (Yes, there's a border in the lake so no one's allowed to swim and the military patrol it.) It's the highest saltwater lake in the world.

The lake was so blue that it felt unrealistic. If someone had told me that it was dyed, I'd have believed them. I did not know that such blue water existed. Its beauty is even more elevated because it's set between the mountains. You also can't see the end of the lake because it's so long. It looks like the water and the mountains go on forever. I couldn't stop staring at it and taking photos. Our stay was 500 m from the lake so we got to see the sunrise there as well.

Here are a couple of photos (which don't do justice to the real view):

The left was taken in the morning when the sun was high and the water was reflecting sparkles and the right was in the evening when it looked like a painting.

We expected Ladakh to be way colder and packed thermals and warm jackets. But it was actually hotter than Bangalore during the day. The sun directly hit us because of the altitude so it felt scorching. We were in regular clothes most of the time and sunscreen was a must. All of us got tanned during the trip.

It was cold only at Pangong Tso Lake, dipping to 6 degrees at night. It was the only time we used our warm clothes. Funnily, I showered in cold water at the Pangong Tso stay after the day's activities because hot water wasn't available in the evening. The one time I wanted to wash my hair, we didn't have hot water, and I still did it. I worried about falling sick and regretting it later because of how cold it became. But it was fine! I shivered a bit at night but otherwise was okay. It's only in Bangalore that I fall sick easily, smh.

We didn't see snow on the trip except at the Khardung La pass. At an elevation of 5,359 m, it's one of the highest motorable roads in the world. We stopped there on the way to Nubra Valley. I felt a bit breathless because of the sudden change in altitude and had to sit most of the time. I had taken meds for motion sickness but it made adjusting to the altitude worse and I couldn't enjoy Khardung La pass much.

Later in the trip, on the way back to Leh from Pangong Tso, we stopped at Chang La pass which is the highest mountain pass in Ladakh at an elevation of 5,391 m. I hadn't taken any meds that day and managed motion sickness by sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, so I could properly enjoy the views this time and get good pictures.

All of us got really got pictures throughout the trip. We had iPhones with great cameras and my friends took great photos. One of them got a selfie stick for this trip which helped a lot. I got so many photos in which I look like a model 😌 My hair is also finally at a length where it becomes a feature of its own and looks great in photos, so I made my friends take many where I turned away and the pics came out great.

Usually, sleeping and eating well is secondary on a trip in favour of sightseeing. But we slept so well and ate well. All our stays were 3 stars or above so our experience was good. They provided good blankets which helped when the temperatures dipped at night. The food was mostly standard North Indian food almost everywhere and our stays all had great food.

Our road trip from Nubra Valley to Pangong Tso was the longest at around 6 hours. The driver stopped at a small town called Durbuk because it has a few restaurants for lunch. We were quite hungry by then so we chose the nearest one called Food Hub which looked okay, and it was a great choice. All of the food was good but the pizza was amazing.

Listen. I haven't had a pizza in around 2 years but when I saw the pizza that my friends got and loved, I had to try it. It was the best pizza I've ever had. You could tell that it was made in-house with fresh local ingredients. The bread was great and the cheese was amazing. It was local cheese (probably Yak cheese) and it tasted so good. Usually, when eating junk food, you can tell that it's unhealthy but this pizza did not feel like junk food.

Then, I saw someone at the next table having ramen and she was eating as if she was finding god, so I had to try it too 😂 It was the regular packaged ramen that we get in Bangalore too but they prepared it well. My friends and I loved it. I wanted to leave a glowing review of the place but I couldn't find it on Google. It's wild that a random place in a small town which is only a pit stop has a restaurant with such good pizza and I can't even share a link to the place.

The local cuisine is mostly Tibetan cuisine which we didn't have much actually. I've had Thukpa before and did not like it. The others had it in one place and didn't like it either. We were served Thenthuk soup in the Nubra Valley stay which was great. We had Chutagi on the last day in Leh and that was tasty too.

By the way, the paneer there is so different. Every place we went to had paneer curries, always with huge paneer chunks. They were not like the paneer we get elsewhere. It was interesting.

We spent the second half of the last day shopping in Leh market and had a great time. I bought a couple of shawls that looked pretty and got gifts for a few friends. All of us also bought fresh ripe apricots to bring home. I had never had ripe apricots before and the apricots there are so good. I got only 500 g home which I regretted later because my mom and I finished them in two days 😂 One of my friends did the right thing by bringing 2 kgs.

Overall: brilliant trip. 20/10. Would go there again. Probably in the winter season because Ladakh would be a whole different kind of gorgeous covered in snow.

This was a much-needed vacation. I did not want to come back to Bangalore. It felt like a betrayal to be surrounded by buildings after being surrounded by mountains for a week.

I sent so many snaps during the trip that I lowkey took my Snapchat contact list on the trip with me. When I got back, they were saying how their phones would suddenly get bombarded every few hours when I got mobile network 😂 I think they enjoyed it, though. I will not be ashamed of sending ten thousand snaps when they're all of beautiful views.

Okay, I think I covered all the major points. Hope you enjoyed the short rave about the trip. I could write an entire post about it but it would be way too long. Let me know if you'd like to see it even though you now know basically everything 🏔️

overall

As you can tell, July was meh except that one week in Ladakh. That will probably be the highlight of my entire year unless I go on a better trip (unlikely). I hope that the trip vibes don't wear off soon because I need that energy to get through dreary days.

How was your July? What did you read? Did you go on any vacation? Or are you planning any? Have I convinced you to visit Ladakh? Tell me in the comments!