Words of October || Wrap-up

October was a busy month but I still feel like I didn't get much done. The days were long and the weeks were short. It feels like I wrote my September wrap-up only a week back but we're already in November!

I have a bunch to say about what I did and even more to say about what I didn't. So, grab your favourite drink and settle down. Let me take you through my October 🍂

words on books

Remember when I read 15 books in September? Well, my reading reduced significantly in October.

I read 7 books in October. 2 paperbacks and 5 ebooks. All the ebooks were rereads. All 7 books were read in the last 10 days (or so) of the month. I barely read for the first 20 days.

Here's the thing: I started October with 2 huge books in my "currently reading" list. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a beast on its own. Above that, I was listening to To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara. The former is 1000+ pages and the latter is 700+ pages (or 28 hours on audiobook). I figured that I would read other small books while reading these two slowly but that didn't happen.

Somehow, my October was filled and I didn't have the time or energy to read a lot. I would spend my days watching YouTube vlogs or comedy shows instead of reading.

I'm currently 270 pages into War & Peace. The story was pretty interesting in the beginning with all the drama in the society sprinkled with commentary on war. But for the last 100 pages, it's been all about the mundane things in war. I've been reading about what foot soldiers think for so long that the society part feels like a different book entirely. And I'm bored with this part. I don't feel like picking it up and reading it as a leisurely activity so I haven't made much progress.

To Paradise disappointed me so badly that I DNFed it after giving it 8.5 hours of my life. The book is 28 hours on 1x speed. I listen on 2x so it's down to 14. I pushed through a lot of it by listening to it on my commutes. I wanted to finish it to at least know how it ended and if it made sense. But I couldn't make it past 60%. I saw no point in the story and hated almost everything in the book.

Even though I quit reading To Paradise at 60%, I'm going to write a full review of it. I have so many feelings about it. I vented to my friends with several voice notes and huge paragraphs and it's still not enough. So, yeah, I'll write a review of it soon and you can find out why it pissed me off and disappointed me so much.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is pretty well-known and I finally picked it up at the bookstore after seeing Charvi talk about it. It was the book that brought me out of my slump after weeks and made me want to read again. It was so refreshing to read. I loved how it says that it's okay to not follow the traditional paths in life and it's okay to do what makes us happy and content, even if it looks like a downgrade to everyone else.

My last read in October was Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I enjoyed the recent books of the author so I decided to try her backlist. This book was okay. I read it in one sitting because it was so easy to get through. However, I didn't like the story much. Other than a few great quotes, it was boring. It also reminded me of a similar book I read several years ago. Hold on, let me hunt for it in my Goodreads history.

Found it. Heads You Win by Jeffrey Archer. The two books are similar because we see a singular timeline until a part where the main character makes a decision which sets off two timelines based on the different decisions they could take. Both books show how some things are meant to be no matter what and how other things depend on choice.

Heads You Win was a very captivating and engaging book. Although I hated the ending, everything before that was brilliant. Maybe In Another Life was pretty boring and kinda predictable. It was fairly enjoyable but will not remain in my mind for years like Heads You Win.

Other than the above books, I reread the first 5 books of the Dark Verse series by RuNyx in anticipation of the last book's release. I've been waiting for the 6th/final book for over two years now. I followed the author on Instagram and later subscribed to her newsletter so that I knew all the latest news about the last book. I added the finale's release date to my calendar so that I don't miss it!

The 6th book was supposed to release on the 29th so I started rereading the previous books on the 27th. Unfortunately, on the 29th, I opened Amazon to get the final book only to find out that the release had been postponed to November 15th. I was sooooo disappointed 😞

I knew that I hadn't missed any newsletter so I opened Instagram just for this and realized that the author had posted about the delay. I didn't know because I wasn't checking social media. Well, I have waited 2 years, what's 2 more weeks? I wish I had found out before I reread the books. It would have been nice to read the entire series at a stretch.

For November, I have no specific reading plans other than the final book of the Dark Verse series and War & Peace. I don't think I'll be able to finish reading the latter but I can try to get through a chunk of it. I wanted to be around 450 pages by the end of October so that finishing it this year would be possible.

If I read 200 pages a week, I can easily finish W&P by the end of the year. But I'm not sure if I can commit to 200 pages a week considering how my days are going. I'll probably read it until January or so. We'll see.

words on blogging

At the beginning of October, I was just a tad behind blogging. I wanted to get ahead again just so I could have breathing space later but that did not happen. I'm currently writing posts right before they have to go live.

I briefly considered going on a blogging break mid-month because I simply did not have the time to write proper posts in time. I had a couple of other things to do and I didn't have the energy to blog during the week. However, I made sure to rest one day over the weekend, and somehow blogged.

My Life in Beverages was a spur-of-the-moment post. I was thinking about random things when I remembered a casual comment from a few weeks ago. I started thinking about what I'd write in the hypothetical post. I had so many things to say that I decided to actually write it. It was purely a "why not" post and I enjoyed writing it so much.

I barely finished writing the post before it had to go live but I did it! And somehow, October ended without me going on a blogging break. I don't think I'll go on a break in November either because I have two book reviews that I want to write. I'll try to spend any free time at the beginning of the month writing them so that I have time to think about the "wild card" post of the month.

The thing is, I really want to blog consistently until the end of the year. I want to post 4 times a month until December. I've been doing so well from January until now without a break. I want to do it until the end of 2024 just to prove to myself that I can. It's been years since I blogged consistently for a whole year without a break so I want to do it this time.

While journalling a few days back, I realized that I have only a few posts remaining. Discounting this wrap-up, I only have to write 7 more posts. 1 of them will be the November wrap-up and I have 2 book reviews in mind already. The last post of the year will probably be my best books of 2024. So, technically, I have to come up with only 4 more post ideas.

Keeping the above in mind, I'm going to try to push through till the end of the year. I may take a break at the beginning of next year, though. It depends on my energy levels at the time. If I get a relaxing holiday, I won't need to. If it's a busy time, I'll take a break.

In better news, I wrote my 50th newsletter! The November 1st newsletter was my 50th. It's wild that I've written so many emails and that people are still subscribed to them. I've been unsure about newsletters so many times and knowing that 200+ people read my email every month makes me want to continue them.

I've been writing the newsletters purely to share random thoughts so I was pleasantly surprised when I received my first newsletter sponsorship proposal! I had no idea of how to navigate newsletter collaborations and what to ask for. I didn't have the time to research either so I agreed to whatever they suggested and went with it.

It's not in the plan to look for sponsorships and other deals for my newsletter. After doing so much for the blog and quitting, I'm not looking to spend a similar effort there again. However, if a good opportunity lands in my inbox, I'll take it.

I firmly believe that if opportunity knocks on our door without us explicitly calling for it, we should take it. Something else that I was occupied with in my personal life in October was similar. I'm not going to say no to good opportunities. It's always good to give things a try.

Anyway! That was my October in terms of blogging. I didn't do anything other than what was on the calendar. For November, I hope that I'm able to better manage my time and write what I'm excited about without rushing.

In case you missed them, here are the posts I published:

• Business Casual by B. K. Borison book review
• Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff book review — this was a full rant review lol.
• My Life in Beverages — hands down my favourite post in a while. I loved describing my life through beverages.

Here are a couple of backlist posts that are fitting for this time of the year:

• How to Start a Bullet Journal
• 8 Ways to Get Out of a Blogging Slump

content consumed

Blog Posts

I'm sooo behind on reading blog posts. I read a few at the beginning of October and again a few at the end of October. I was reading September wrap-ups at the end of October! I'm going to take a while to catch up on all the great posts. Here are the few I managed to read:

• Vanya wrote about Sustainability: A science of the society? which was interesting to read and think about.
• Abi documented reading the DNF Series and it's hilarious.
• A year after she borrowed it from me, Vaish finally read and reviewed How to Read a Book.
• Olivia wrote about why we love the found family trope in fantasy.
• 24hr.YABookBlog wrote about ARCs, Reading Culture, Book Reviews, and Books as a "Commodity".

YouTube Videos

• I know how the Google PageRank algorithm works but I came across this cute animated PageRank explanation video and had to share it.
• The same YouTuber made an animated video on B-Trees which made the concept so easy to understand.

TV Shows

• I finished watching Girl Meets World. I loved the first two seasons but wasn't a fan of the last season. The charm of the show was the foolish things the girls did and the comedy in the story. In the last season, it became so sad and serious. It wasn't my 30-minute dose of happiness in the day anymore. I understand why the show didn't have season 4. I wish we got some epilogue though because I shipped Maya and Josh so bad and wanted to see them together in a futuristic epilogue. After the show, I wanted to watch Boy Meets World as I'd heard that it's better but I couldn't find a proper streaming service that played it. I saw articles saying it was on Disney+ Hotstar but I couldn't find it on the app so I'm guessing it's removed. If you know where I can watch it, do let me know!
• Comedy shows made my day better so I started watching Fresh Off the Boat. I'm enjoying it!

words on life

October started with a vacation! After a bunch of failed vacations, I was afraid to jinx this one too so I tried to not become excited about it until it happened. One of my friends randomly texted the last week of September asking for a trip and I agreed. Somehow, all 3 of us were ready. The fact that all 3 of us were ready is rare, okay? We immediately booked things.

We went to Gokarna. I went there with colleagues a few years ago and had a great time even though we didn't do much then. My colleagues and I had done a veeery quick and chill trip. This one with my school friends was the complete opposite.

It turns out that these friends don't understand the concept of chilling on a vacation? They say that if they wanted to chill, they'd rather stay at home. Their idea is that if we're travelling somewhere, we should make the most of it by seeing and doing everything. I stayed quiet when they had this conversation because while I like sight-seeing, I also like having chill vacations where I do nothing 😂

We were in Gokarna for 3 days and did so much that it felt like a 5-6 day trip. It was a busy girls' trip. We went to a ton of places and took sooo many pictures. I generally don't take a lot of photos but wow, these guys. They took photos at every place from every angle.

In my previous Gokarna trip, I had not taken even one photo of myself and we took ONE group photo at the end of the trip. This time, I have at least 40 photos of myself and another 30 with the three of us 🫠 I mean, I'm really glad to have a bunch of great photos of myself, but I can also say that I was at the end of my patience 😂

They also wanted to take some vacation reels following some trends but we didn't get to it because we were too busy hopping between locations. I've been to a few of those locations before with colleagues (not as part of the Gokarna trip though, it was during another Uttara Kannada trip) but it was nice to revisit and get pictures this time.

I was tired when we left for the trip and I was even more tired when we got back. It's a good thing we returned on a Sunday morning because I could rest a day before regular life started again.

It turned out that I left Bangalore right when the gloomy weather started so I returned to proper rainy weather. Remember how I complained that Bangalore didn't have a rainy season this year? Well, October decided to be the start of the rainy season instead of June. A cyclone was near the East coast for a good while and Bangalore was raaaainy.

For some reason, Bangalore's position means that whenever there are heavy rains on either of the coasts, we get a ton of rain too despite being quite inland. Bangalore weather doesn't have a personality of its own, it's a mesh of the surroundings.

I was wearing my jackets and scarves almost every day. I rode in the morning rain to go for badminton more than once. It became cold enough to warrant wearing a jacket at home. I carried an umbrella everywhere I went, even if it looked sunny.

However, despite having the first rain in a long time and some respite from the long summer, it wasn't cute cosy weather. We had so much rain that the government issued orange and yellow alerts multiple times. Schools closed for multiple days and offices gave work from home when possible.

I went to the office on Monday when the gloomy weather started. On Tuesday, after riding in the rain both to and from badminton in the morning, my mom convinced me to take work from home because it looked like the rain wasn't letting up. As my commute mostly consists of walking, I wasn't looking forward to going in the rain either and took work from home.

Good thing I stayed home because it rained a lot on Tuesday, enough to cause several infrastructure issues in the city which led to many more problems. The government advised staying at home and my office gave us work from home for the rest of the week.

Funnily enough, we didn't have much rain on the days we worked from home. In fact, it was sunny all day on Wednesday. But while my area was fine, other areas in Bangalore were struggling with flooding. A long summer lulled us into forgetting to prepare for harsh rains which usually came in July/August.

October was also a month of festivals. We had Dussehra in the beginning. Like every year, so many people followed the colour code for 10 days. My mom and her friends gathered at a different house every day to sing together and exchange gifts and sweets. She came home with food and sweets for me too.

We also had Diwali at the end of October. You clearly know Diwali is coming because most people start planning long work from homes and send out-of-office notifications. Most offices also plan Diwali celebrations a while before the actual festival so that people can celebrate at the office before heading to their hometowns.

I am a part of the "fun committee" at the office so I was a part of the planning for Diwali celebrations too. After how much the sports day took from me, I decided that I wouldn't pour so much of myself into planning. I kind of managed it this time. To be honest, I was so much more occupied with work that I couldn't participate in planning as much.

However, I hosted along with a colleague on the day of the celebration. It was a tiring 3 hours, let me tell know. We started with playing Tambola (a version of Bingo) and played another very fun cup game. I was hosting the entire time and was sooo tired by the time I got home. It was a good day, though! We had a lot of fun.

It was a very busy month with a few bright points here and there. The festivals were brief fun periods in between stressful days. I went to an improv show with my best friend. I met another friend after work on a Friday.

Once, on a busy workday, I met my reader friends for lunch. I am lucky that my office is on a popular street with bookstores because I get to meet friends like this. They had come to the bookstore and had lunch with me afterwards. It was so nice to see them and have good food with them. It made my day.

Nowadays, it feels like I'm trying to fit hangouts with friends in between things rather than have a good amount of time with them. I had something else that took up a lot of my time and mental space in October so everything that was a lower priority got shifted further down. It was a tiring month.

I tried fidget rings and found that they actually help! I found a couple of really cute fidget rings online and bought them. They're so helpful. Usually, I pick at the skin around my nails whenever my hands aren't occupied and it's not a good habit.

As I'm already used to wearing and fidgeting with rings, having spinner rings helps. I find myself using it all the time. My friends and colleagues have noticed it too. Whenever I'm intently listening or focusing, I fidget with the rings instead of plucking at my skin.

They also make me calmer by giving me something to do when I'm worried or stressed. Although I present myself well in such situations, my heart beats faster and I feel super tired afterwards. With the rings, I feel more in control and am able to think clearly.

So, if you're someone who fidgets a lot and has bad habits when hands aren't occupied, try fidget rings. Fidget spinners and other gadgets don't work as they're extra things to carry but rings are easily with you all the time.

chat with me!

How was your October? What did you read or watch? Did you celebrate anything or go anywhere? Tell me in the comments!