Words of May || Wrap-up

May was a looooong month and I have so much to say. Do I have the time or energy for it, though? We'll find out together.

As you might know, my wrap-ups are pretty long and take time to write. Plus, I draw a new illustration for all my posts which takes more time. Usually, I start my wrap-up in advance to easily post them in the first few days of the month.

This time, you're getting a rushed last-minute wrap-up. I might not structure it well or write coherently but I will try to write about everything on my mind. So, grab a drink and settle down as I catch you up on my month ☕️

words on books

I read 6 books in May which is significantly less than my reading count of 15 in April. 2 were paperbacks and 4 were ebooks. 1 was a reread.

The book count is low because I read a few huge books. I am not disappointed with the number because of that. Reading those books took a lot of time.

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic. I started the month with this and absolutely loved it. What a sequel! It was filled with characters doing normal things and bonding and I LOVED IT. I've reread the book twice since then. Jean has my whole heart and I can't wait to see where this storyline heads.

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir. My friend's copy that I borrowed was 480 pages but it felt much longer. I was bored for most of the book and lowkey struggled to get through it. The pacing was bad (we'd skip months randomly) and I didn't care about what was happening most of the time. I really hope the last book is worth it.

Gold by Raven Kennedy. I couldn't wait for this book to be released after I finished Glow but I didn't pick it up until months after its release. I forgot a bunch and had to read recaps to remember before I read this. It was great, though. I remembered why I loved the series. It was almost 700 pages but I flew through it. Now, I can't wait for the last book to be released. This series needs to stop making me wait with cliffhangers and end already.

Cinderella Boy by Kristina Meister. This has been on my TBR for years. I was reminded of it through Storygraph because it shows random books from the TBR on the homepage every time. So, I finally got to Cinderella Boy. It's a lovely story about a gender-fluid person in high school discovering themselves, learning to be confident, and finding love. The epilogue was a bit much but the story was great otherwise. I highly recommend it if you want a book to read in Pride Month!

The Boyfriend Wish by Swati Teerdhala. Yes, even I'm surprised that I read TWO YA books in a row. I picked this up through another blogger's recommendation (my memory is so bad, I can't remember who). I was interested because it stars Indian-American characters. It wasn't different from most YA stories, though, and I didn't enjoy it that much. It was a fun one-time read.

The main reason why my reading count has been low in May is that I finally started reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I haven't finished it yet—I'm a little over 600 pages through which is around 60%. It's been interesting! I didn't know anything about it and wondered if I'd hate it but it's quite nice.

I've been reading a few pages on weekdays and more on weekends to get through it soon. It'll probably take me another couple of weeks to finish it considering my current schedule. I'll share my thoughts on the book when I'm done.

words on the blog

Considering that I had been in a lowkey slump for the entire year in 2023, I wondered if I'd hit a slump in May. In the past, something usually breaks my blogging stride—work, motivation, life, etc. However, I kept blogging!

It's been 5 straight months of consistent blogging with no breaks and I'm quite proud of myself for managing that. I kind of had to learn how to blog consistently and manage my content schedule again because of how different my life is now compared to a few years back. But the more I write, the easier writing is.

In the first couple weeks of May, I actually felt like blogging more and got ahead in scheduled posts. I'm currently 3 posts ahead!

As I was ahead and motivated to write, I finally tackled a random and slightly personal post that I've wanted to write for months. It took me a week to write and is over 7k words long. It isn't a useful or helpful post. It's filled with random stories from my life and my thoughts on one thing. I'm super happy with it and can't wait for y'all to see it soon. You might not care about it, but I'm excited to share it anyway!

I forgot how much I write when I stop caring about SEO and post structure and being helpful. I'm going back to the old days of blogging. I'm focusing on writing whatever I'm interested in without looking at statistics.

Speaking of statistics, my blog stats are still going down. Some of my new posts are showing up on search results as well but they're not making much difference to overall blog stats. But it's fine.

At this point, I notice the decline but I just don't care enough about it. I'm having too much fun writing and posting. I chased higher stats for a long time only to lose passion for this amazing hobby. I'd rather have my passion back than maintain those numbers.

In case you missed them, here's what I posted last month:

• I reviewed Tis the Season for Revenge by Morgan Elizabeth after a year of reading, rereading, and loving it.
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna was so cute that I immediately reviewed it.
• After months of thinking about it, planning it, and procrastinating, I finally wrote a post compiling my best book recommendations. It was a struggle to cut down a ton of books and make my list shorter than 20 but I'm happy with the final list!

One day a few weeks back, during my commute, I started reading old posts of mine. As my writing style and content evolve over the years, I have newfound appreciation for my older content. This time, I was surprised by how I kept blogging through a really sad period in my life and still created great content.

It's a little sad that my older posts don't get traction anymore despite being evergreen posts. I used to share them on social media sometimes but that's stopped since I've stopped using social media apps. New people won't come across them either. So, I've decided to start promoting one or two of my old posts every month in my wrap-ups.

Here are some older posts of mine that you should read if you haven't yet:

• Required Reading || Is Academic Reading Making a Difference? — A discussion post on required reading that I'm super proud of.
• 11 Ways to Format Book Reviews for Your Blog — a post from the good ol' days when I used to frequently post helpful blogging guides.

words on content consumed

I usually share a few blog posts that I loved during the month as part of the previous section. In May, I consumed a TON of interesting content and want to share all of them. Seeing such amazing content by people across the world blows me away and inspires me to create as well.

So, here's a new section because I have so much to share.

Blog Posts

• Cait did a 24 hour reading challenge and blogged all about it.
• Line wrote a post on whether she agrees with Storygraph's review method.
• Nicole discussed biased book reviews.
• Lila wrote about how controversies affect her reading.

Newsletters & Articles

• Jordan Santos's newsletter on how it's okay to be curated was so relatable and true that I immediately subscribed.
• I also liked Santos's newsletter on being less available online. It made me more determined to not get sucked into social media and it's unsaid expectations from creators again. It pushed me to finally make the changes to my Instagram account that I've been thinking about for a while (more on this below).
• Ava's newsletter on the friendship theory of everything was a nice reminder that friendships are hard but worth the effort.
• I LOVED Josey Murray's article on betterment burnout so much that I immediately shared it with a bunch of friends. It was on my mind for quite a few days and was the reason why I let go of my running goal for the month (more on this below).

Videos

• Barnes & Nobles' new business strategy is interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how it changes things.
• The Book Leo made a great video on whether tropes on booktok are ruining reading. She raises great points in the video with data to back them up. TikTok is banned in India and I didn't use it before then either so it's always interesting to see all these issues and changes in the world due to the app.
• Jack Edwards also did a TikTok-related video on how tiktok ruined reading + the "booktok book" formula. He spoke really well on the topic and made great statements. I like that he addressed the hate towards the app for being misogynistic.
• Tiago Forte's video on how to create more and consume less was a nice reminder to notice what and how much content I consume. Funny how I watched it during the month when I was consuming the most haha.
• The Book Guy's take on why it's not so easy to "read whatever you want" was a refreshing perspective.

words on my 2024 goals

My reading goal hasn't seen as much progress in May because I read fewer books. I'm still quite ahead so I'm not worried about this.

My blogging goal for the year is almost done! You're currently reading my 24th post of the year. I'm only one post away from my goal of publishing 25 posts. It's wild that I've blogged more in 6 months this year than in the entirety of last year.

To work on my 2024 running goal, I had a smaller goal to run at least 10 times in May. I even made a schedule so that I could balance running and playing badminton. It went great for about a week and was disrupted by my periods. My period cramps were so bad this time that I was in pain for 4 straight days. It was so bad that, on the first day, multiple people in the office commented that I did not look okay. And it took longer for my body to heal enough to exercise.

I was disappointed in myself for not running and was gearing up to force myself to run when I read the article on betterment burnout. Although my running goal was set at the beginning of the year with good intentions, I realized that I wasn't chasing that goal for myself anymore.

As I was running consistently for a while, people around me began to admire me for it and assumed that I was running regularly and making progress. Soon, I was running to show that I was running and making progress at it instead of enjoying it. I grew to enjoy playing badminton far more than running but I was forcing myself to continue running as well.

It took a toll on me mentally and physically. Increasing pressures at work and extended working hours were not helping me either. I wasn't taking proper rest when I needed to. The pain during my periods was a big sign that I was doing something wrong. So, I decided to stop pushing myself to run. I will get back to it when I want to—when it's back to being something for me and I'm not trying to keep up with others' expectations.

After deciding it, when someone at the office commented on admiring me for running regularly, I clarified that I was not doing it anymore because it wasn't sustainable. Just saying that felt freeing. And of course, I'm getting more much-needed sleep by skipping runs.

It's time to update my 2024 goals to reflect my current priorities. The running goal is a good example of why. A lot can change in 6 months. I will tweak my list so that it is still relevant to me and I'll share it with you in my mid-year notes.

words on life & other stuff

Reading the betterment burnout article in the first week of the month really had me thinking about why I do what I do every day. Was I running to "become better" or because I was enjoying it? Was I constantly chasing progress instead of living well?

As I don't have social media, a lot of the unsaid pressures to show that I'm doing well aren't present. Most of my activities are truly for myself. However, there are still things that I work on to "make progress." While it's good to work on ourselves, it can become toxic at a point.

I want to stop chasing progress on my fitness. Playing badminton 3-4 times a week and commuting to the office by walking 4 days a week is enough exercise. I don't need to do anymore.

The article also helped me let go of the last bit of worry over my blog. Initially, increasing blog stats felt great. Soon, I was working harder and harder on the blog only to make the numbers go higher. When it started dropping, my mood started dropping as well.

I've decided to stop looking at stats and just focus on sharing what I want to. Life is much better when you're not chasing progress on hobbies. Let's keep the pressures only on careers.

In my April wrap-up, I mentioned that I was considering making my Instagram account private. I was hesitating because it would mean that my account wouldn't be a creator account anymore and that it wouldn't reach a lot of people. But I took a step back and really thought about what I wanted the account to be.

I am not planning to make content all the time on Instagram again. I don't want to get on the hamster wheel of constantly creating content in different formats only to be disappointed. I don't want to share so much of my life that everything I did became associated with its shareability.

So, I took the plunge and made my Instagram account private. I installed the app to do that and share a blog post on the stories. In 10 minutes, I uninstalled the app again. I feel so much better now.

I also wanted to clean up my followers but it felt like such a daunting task that I left it for another day. At least all new followers will have to be let in by me. I will be much more conscious about who can see my updates.

The plan is to return to Instagram with minimal focus in July or August. But I'm not sure if I'll actually go through with it or push it further. We'll see.

My mood is much better nowadays because the weather finally turned and we started getting rain. Even if the rain is inconvenient at times, I am grateful for it. It reduces the temperature and makes the day much more bearable. Every time it rains, I feel like having a hot cup of chai and relaxing.

I even vlogged for a week! It's been so long since I vlogged that I forgot how to do it. But it's also been long enough that I forgot about the pressures I put on it. I have a week's worth of haphazard clips now. I'm not sure if I'll edit and post them or delete them after a while. It was nice to vlog nonetheless. I missed taking random clips of my days without worrying about making it aesthetic or creating a story.

The last two weeks of May were filled with exhausting days. There's so much on my plate at work. I could get it all done if I extend my hours but I absolutely don't want to do that. I had to a couple of times only because I had to collaborate with people. Otherwise, despite having work pending, I made sure to log off.

Going to the office 4 days a week is no joke. I don't know how people do it 5 days a week. Leaving home at 10 am and returning at 8:30 pm does not leave much room for my hobbies or to even rest well. I can pick a maximum of two things every day and sometimes one of them is sleep/rest.

As I wasn't able to do much during the week, I packed my weekends with everything. I met friends, did my hobbies, and made sure to nap a couple of days. It feels like I'm living for the weekends which isn't a good thing. Michelle's post on making evenings feel like weekends made me realize it.

In June, I want to treat my off hours as if work doesn't exist. No more opening Teams and Outlook to check if something came up. No more thinking about work while I shower or eat breakfast. It will be hard, especially since I don't have social media that can easily replace thinking about work, but I've got to figure something out. Thinking about work all day all week isn't sustainable.

I'm long overdue for a vacation too. It's been over six months since my last vacation. Although I've been open to plans, nobody around has been available or making plans. Suddenly, in the last week, three different groups started talking about trips. Hopefully, they'll work out and I'll have a good time away from regular life.

I watched Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle movie! It was technically on the 1st of June but I don't want to wait until my June wrap-up to talk about it.

The movie had a lot of good material to work with and did the most possible. The technical execution was brilliant. I loved the different POVs and how it was fast-paced like a real volleyball match. I screamed along with the entire theatre at multiple parts. There were a couple of really good moments.

While it was technically great, it wasn't satisfying enough plot-wise and emotion-wise. A lot of the big moments were rushed. They did show flashbacks to heighten the emotion of certain developments but there wasn't enough time spent on the big moments. Things went by so quickly that by the time my brain caught up with it and I exclaimed, the movie moved on.

I wish it was being released in episode form as well. I love the previous seasons as episodes because that allows us to get properly emotionally invested and enjoy each moment to the fullest. The movie did not evoke emotions as much because it was so rushed.

I was quite surprised to see the turnout for the movie. A lot of people around my age and many high schoolers filled up the seats. So many people came wearing Karasuno shirts with the number 9 or 10. It made me jealous and I want to buy a Karasuno jacket for myself now haha.

chat with me!

How are you? How was your May? What did you do? What did you read/watch? Did the seasons change where you are? Talk to me in the comments!