Words of September || Wrap-up

September was one of those full months where so much happened that it is hard to pick out things to share. Every week, there was something happening. Every day, I was sprinting through things. I took breaks but they were not enough considering how much I was doing on the other days.

Clearly, I have much to say, so let's get to it.

words on books

After reading 6 books in the entire month of August, I read 6 books in the first 6 days of September. Well, actually, I read 9 in the first 6 days but I thought the line would sound nicer with 6.

In total, I read 15 books in September which is mad. 7 were paperback, 6 were ebooks, and 2 were audiobooks. 9 were romance books.

I fell sick in the first week of the month and was home all day all week. Although I should have rested instead of reading, I sprinted through books in those days. I even wrote a weekend reading log documenting some of it. So, that's one reason why the number is so high in September.

Soon after I recovered, one of my reader friends suggested trying to read a total of 48 hours in a week in our group chat and we all decided to try it out. I don't think any of us calculated how much reading we'd have to do to get to 48 hours. We didn't take it seriously. We simply decided to try something together.

The first week, I read for around 3 hours in the entire week. The second week, we decided to try again and I read for 5 hours. When it was clear that there was no way we'd reach 48 hours (except maybe Vaish because she blew past the rest of us and somehow read a whopping 19 hours in the second week).

We tried again with a 12-hour goal in the last week of September. Vaish was reading for 2-3 hours every day and I struggled to keep up. I didn't reach her but I did come close to her previous day's ending total a couple of times. I was trying hard the 3rd time and tried to fit in reading in every spare minute.

The reason I suddenly got back to reading audiobooks after not touching them for several months was this challenge. My eyes weren't doing too well to read after a long day of working so I'd listen to an audiobook before sleeping. In week 3, I was listening to audiobooks while working out, commuting to the office, and doing chores.

So, yeah. September consisted of a ton of reading due to me falling sick and then going along with my friends for a reading challenge.

I read so much that I also completed my 2024 reading challenge! I finished reading 100 books! I didn't keep track so I missed it when the number hit 100.

In the last week of the month, I was joking about how Vaish was reading so much more than me and she replied that I must have read at least 100 this year. I denied it and went to my Storygraph to prove her wrong only to find out that I was actually at 102. Vaish knew better than me. It was funny 😂

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Naemi said she loved this so I had to pick it up. It was a nice escapist read. It follows the grieving owner of the only bookstore on a small island who has to suddenly raise a baby that was left in the store one day. As he takes care of Maya, his life becomes wider and fuller again. I adored the characters and loved the little book reviews at the beginning of every chapter that AJ writes for Maya. While I liked the book, I didn't love it. It was a one-time read for me.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. This is an interesting fantasy story based on the "red string of fate" theory. The world-building and imagery were great. I liked that the main character took fate into her own hands and pushed to do something in her life instead of accepting whatever was handed to her. I didn't like that the book focused on her so much that her love interest was nothing more than a cardboard cutout of any other YA love interest. Sometimes, random dangerous things happen without any reason or consequences just to add a "danger" element to the story. Overall, it was okay.

Business Casual by B. K. Borison. This was everything I expected. It was cosy, homey, comforting, and also thoughtful. I liked the focus on each character individually and their growth. I liked how they grew alongside each other and supported one another. I liked the overall community vibe. The book left me feeling happy and content. A full book review will be up soon.

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin. This was interesting because I didn't know if I'd rate this book well or not until the end. I did nooot like the main character in the beginning but I understood the point of the story. The story depicts how women are not given second chances after making mistakes while men continue to do so forever and still succeed. I liked how the main character pushed forward and made a life for herself by the end of the book. I especially liked the last paragraph of the book. Overall, it was good.

Revive Me: Part Two and Revive Me: Part Three by J. L. Seegars. After rereading Restore Me and Revive Me: Part One, I continued with the rest of the series. These books were way too long for no reason. They did not have to be 500 pages. It was a bit excruciating to get through at times. Overall, I don't recommend it. I shared more thoughts in this post.

Release Me by J. L. Seegars. I thought I'd like this story because of the main characters but they weren't as impressive as I expected. There wasn't much to the story. The guy pined over her and did everything in his power to make her happy and keep her with him. The interesting parts of her character dissolved when she was with him. Overall, was disappointed by the book. More thoughts on it here.

Reclaim Me by J. L. Seegars. I should have quit the series but since there was only one book left, I decided to finish it. I hated this book's prologue and was sure that I'd hate the book overall. But it mostly redeemed itself by the end. It was longer than it should have been and the woman wasn't as great as the book tried to make her out to be. I liked how the guy worked on himself to be better for his people. Overall, it was a good enough story. More thoughts on it here.

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor. The only reason I bought this book was because the cover was shiny and pretty. Unfortunately, the story wasn't great. It's about a magic travelling hotel that seems spectacular but many sinister things are going on behind the scenes. The main character gets swept up in it all and works to break through and save everyone. The characters, the romance, and the plot weren't compelling so I was kinda bored throughout the story. It was meh.

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu. Legend by Marie Lu is my favourite dystopian series and I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book. I borrowed it from a friend and read it. I expected the book to focus more on Nannerl's talents and opportunities compared to her brother. While there was quite a bit of it, it was significantly reduced by the end of the book. The story slowly became more about the fantasy side of things that the real world ceased to be as important. Interesting concept and plot but I didn't enjoy how it was executed.

The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa. I have not read The Travelling Cat Chronicles (it's on my list) so this was my first book by the author. It's a bunch of short stories about different cats and their families. Some of them are from the cat's point of view which I enjoyed. However, many of the stories didn't have a point and didn't make me feel anything, so they felt unnecessary. I didn't like how the last short story was the beginning of The Travelling Cat Chronicles because it felt like the book was selling another book to me. Overall, it was kind of fun to read but is nowhere near my favourites list.

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore. I was trying to reduce the strain on my eyes and still read for the challenge with my friends so I started this audiobook on Libro.fm. The main character gets a shock which makes her reflect on her life in the fast-paced city so she quits her job and moves to a small town to run a cafe and she finds love too. The story wasn't special and the characters weren't different from other small-town romances that I've read. It worked well as an audiobook for me because I could "read" by paying only half my attention to the audiobook while commuting or doing other chores. If I had given it all my attention, I would have DNFed it early on.

Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff. Another romance on Libro.fm because I wanted another light read that is enjoyable with half my attention. Unfortunately, even half my attention was enough for me to dislike this book. Somehow, this book managed to annoy me while I was on a 5k run and caused me to make faces as I listened to the story. I'm sure I was getting looks but I was too absorbed in thinking "???" over the story. I dislike rock star/musician stories but thought this one might be a tad different due to the synopsis. But noooooo. It was the same as every other rock star romance that I've read. Nothing different. The woman was the worst too because she did NOT take charge of her life and was so BORING. She supposedly had growth by the end but she did not! Her life only changed because of someone else's decisions, giving her the time and opportunity to try something new.

The book somehow packed several of my pet peeves in 10 hours. Oh yeah, this is a TEN HOUR AUDIOBOOK. For what??? Why???? After 50%, I continued just to see if it redeemes itself even a little. It did not. You know what, I might write a rant review on this. I have so much to say.

After that disappointment, I needed to pick up a completely different book. So, I finally picked up War & Peace. As I'm writing this, I'm about 100 pages in. The writing is quite similar to Anna Karenina so it's easy enough to read. I haven't been looking up history as much because I know that I'll go into a completely different rabbit hole. The one time I looked up something, I ended up reading a huge chunk of the Wiki page on Napoleon Bonaparte and didn't get back to reading 😂

In October, I plan to continue W&P, of course. I'll try to read a few light-hearted books alongside it so that I don't get bored.

words on blogging

I was just a tad behind on blogging in September. My weekdays are so jampacked and exhausting that there's no way I can blog during those days. I try to fit in socializing and resting on the weekends. Before I knew it, the weekend was almost over and I had only a few hours left on Sunday to blog.

I'm currently only one post ahead of the blogging schedule. It's not a big deal but I like being ahead so that I don't have to think about what I can write quickly to post in a few days. Although I moved back to posting once every 8 days, it doesn't create a consistent posting schedule day-wise.

For example, I post on Monday, then the next week on Tuesday, and so on. The days keep switching so there's no set day for my posts to go up and even I lose track of when my scheduled posts go up.

I want to move to once a week but there are 2 problems with that—I don't know which day to choose and I don't think I can post once a week. Although there isn't much difference between posting once in 7 days and once in 8 days, I feel the difference.

The best way to post consistently is to have a post series but I don't think I want to do a post series. There's no series on my mind right now that makes me excited. I want to be excited about every blog post I write.

There are a few blog post ideas in my mind—the social media one, a discussion post on reading in general, and a post on my phone setup. But I need time to write them all and I need the space to think. Nowadays, I'm so burnt out by thinking for my job that I want to shut off my brain when I get off work. I literally crash onto my bed after dinner.

It's going to take some time to figure out how to write what I'm excited about and write them well and post them when I want to without burning myself out. I can only hope to figure it out in October. But even if I don't, it's alright. I'll just keep trying things until something sticks.

Speaking of being excited about the posts I write, all of my September blog posts were ones I was happy about. In case you missed them:

• Check & Mate book review. This is my favourite Ali Hazelwood book. I absolutely adore how nerdy it is and had to share my thoughts in a full review.
• Bride book review. This has been so hyped lately and I finally read it. I quite enjoyed it, I won't lie, and I can see why people love it. Of course, I had to write a review of it.
• Weekend Reading Log. I wrote this kind of post after a very long time and I was so happy with it. I liked rambling about everything and nothing again. I liked not worrying about a structure and sharing random titbits from my days. I'm already trying to come up with more similar post ideas.

Here are a couple of old blog posts that you should check out as well:

• How I Made My First YouTube Vlog — It's wild that it's been 9 months since I last made a vlog. I enjoyed the process but eventually, I felt a pressure to make my life look happening and pleasing to look at. That's hard considering my days are pretty monotonous. For some reason, this blog post has also been getting views from search engines lately!
• My Comfort Books – A list of books that I read after a bad day or when I don't feel great.

I wasn't sure if promoting my old blog posts in these wrap-ups would actually help because I know that a lot of the people who read my posts are regulars who have been around for long. Let's be honest, there aren't many new people who read blogs nowadays.

However, after I linked it in my August wrap-up, my post Are Book Reviews Enough for Book Blogs? actually got a bit of attention. That was surprising and nice. Glad to have validation that my old blog posts are still worth the read and that I'm not imagining it.

It's hard when I pour my efforts into writing so many "evergreen" posts that get neglected after a few weeks. There is so much content by bloggers that doesn't deserve to be lost in the archives. It's easier to promote older posts on social media (once I got over the initial hesitation to self-promote) but since I'm not as active on social media anymore, there aren't many options to bring them back to the spotlight.

Speaking of social media, I returned to and posted on Instagram for a few days in the beginning of September. It was during the week when I was ill and was cooped up at home. I was bored and hadn't thought of writing the reading log blog post yet. I was reading a lot and wanted to share my thoughts immediately so I installed Instagram on a whim to do it.

I took simple photos of the books I wanted to talk about without caring about background or filters and posted them. I wrote a long review like I used to earlier for my first post. I wrote a small paragraph for the second book. But I soon felt like I was going back to the old ways which I didn't like.

So, from the third post, I wrote one-liner book reviews. I liked it! I posted a total of 7 posts in 3 days, about 7 books. I briefly considered continuing to stay on Instagram and posting one-liner reviews. But as soon as I started writing the reading log blog post, I didn't want to post on Instagram anymore. I uninstalled it again after not posting for a couple of days.

Returning to Instagram this time made me realize how much I miss memes and jokes. I miss opening an app to find things that quickly make me laugh or lift my mood. I didn't realize how dreary my days were without old Tumblr posts and cat videos. Soon, I found myself scrolling for hours on Instagram to look at memes. I didn't care about looking at bookish posts or keeping up with my friends, I wanted memes and quick doses of happiness!

After uninstalling, it was hard to not install the app again for memes. After a couple of lapses, I finally got over it. Wow, that quick addiction was dangerous. It was so easy to spend hours on social media again. Especially since I was at home all the time.

I lowkey want to have a social media account just to post one-liner book reviews because it would be pretty funny (for me) and I don't care if the posts don't get enough attention. But since it's so easy to start scrolling, I don't think I should be doing it on Instagram. I don't like Twitter anymore. Should I try Tumblr again? Do you have any suggestions of how I can be a part of a community somewhere online and post quick thoughts on books without my attention getting sucked into a black hole?

content consumed

Newsletters/Articles

As I was not keeping track of the latest drama or news even when I had social media for a few days, I was late to see this newsletter/article on Subtack called "The machine in the garden" that apparently went a bit viral. It seems that the article is now only for paid subscribers and is kept behind a paywall, which is a bit ironic considering the contents of the post.

Since we can't read it now, I'll try to summarize based on what I remember. The article was about how Substack doesn't have "quality" content anymore and is filled with women posting diary entries. It mentioned how the most popular Substack posts every week are lists and round-ups. The writer found it funny that some of these things are kept behind a paywall as well. There was something about how a lot of the posts on Substack aren't worth it. "Substack is encroaching on what was a once a respectably literate walled garden."

It's an interesting take. It kind of made me want to shift to Substack to post my nonsense there 😄

On a serious note, the article created a good discussion. The article's point about similar content rising is a good one and the phenomenon has happened on every platform so far. It's not unique to Subtack. Whenever people are trying to quickly gain an audience on a new platform, they will post what seems to be well-received. I did it too, with SEO! I made more listicles to get more views.

I didn't like how the writer was saying that Substack went from having "intellectual" essays to girlies recounting their days and sharing their favourite articles. There's so much heaviness and intellectual requirements from life nowadays, especially since more and more of us are knowledge workers wherein we have to use our brains all day. Is it so bad that we want to write and read silly things on our off ours? Is it so bad that we want to connect with others and read about other lives without having to personally talk to anybody (because let's face it, even talking/texting is hard after a long day)?

I understand why the most popular content on Substack is listicles/round-ups. Many of us don't have the time to go searching for good content. If there's someone we trust who's interests are similar to ours, their round-ups are worth it. Whether it has to be behind a paywall is a nuanced question. If the writer has garnered the trust of their audience enough to charge for it, why not? But if new bloggers/writers are doing it before anyone can know the value of their content, it doesn't make sense.

The comments were really interesting. I liked the lowkey debate and the different points that people brought up. It was interesting to see how some people vehemently disagreed and said that the writer had broken their trust while others totally agreed with the article. There were so many threads in the comments. I wish I had gone through more of them.

It's a good thing that I saved my favourite lines from the comments because even the comments aren't visible for free now. Here were the comments that I liked:

“The thing is, there is a bell curve to people’s taste. Mediocre stuff will hit the spot for a lot of people. It just will. Kafka was never gonna be more popular than JK Rowling. Proust was never gonna outsell 50 Shades. I personally love to see more people creating. I want to see all the bad art and the bad writing and the bad dances and make-up tutorials and anything at all out there. Maybe it’s not for my thing but I love that people are creating. I love that they’re finding an audience.” — I totally agree with this! I like that we are all taking time to indulge in creating whatever we like in the off-hours and making our lives more than just our jobs. Isn't it better for people to create "mass appeal" content than get drunk and party every night?

“wait people are charging for access to *their* roundup of *someone else’s* better writing??” — But if it’s a great list, the creator has a good reputation, and people are willing to pay for it than go finding those articles themselves, why not?

“As Stephen Jay Gould wrote in The Panda's Thumb: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops".” — I LOVED this comment. What a line! And how true!

I just realized that I could have made an entire discussion post on this, considering how long this section has become 😂 Meh, it's fine. The appeal isn't much now the original post is not available to read. If you're interested in another response to the article, you can check out this podcast. That's how I found out about the article in the first place.

Blog Posts

• Michelle shared how she stays consistent with content creation.
• Naemi's review of Marie's debut Us Against the Likes was so nice, I can't wait to read the book.
• Charvi reviewed Nicole's debut Blood Price which has upped by excitement for the book by a lot.

I love how people whose content I adore are publishing novels and others whose content I also love are gushing about those books. I was tempted to sign up for the ARCs as well but knowing my schedule and my previous history with ARCs, I decided to let others do justice to those books. I'll instead support the authors in other ways, like sharing links in wrap-ups 😌

YouTube videos

• I liked this video on how everyone wants to waste your time. I saw this soon after I got out of scrolling memes for hours and it made me realize why it was so easy for me to lose myself in social media.

TV shows

• Love Next Door Kdrama — I binged the first 7-8 episodes when they were released and have been patiently waiting for the rest every week.
• One The Woman Kdrama — I binged this in 2 days and I really enjoyed it. I loved the main character. I want to be her.
• Girl Meets World — For some reason, I saw a bunch of clips of this show on YouTube shorts and liked them so I'm now watching the show on Disney+ Hotstar. It's actually really nice. I even teared up in one of the episodes.

words on life

The highlight of the month was my return to my college as a recruiter. I hadn't stepped foot in my college since I collected my marks cards back in 2020. It had been 4 years. Usually, when my company revisits colleges for recruiting new graduates, they take along the college's alumni. I remember, when I sat for placements, the company came with 2 direct seniors of mine. This time, it was me and one other person who is my 1 year senior as alumni along with a bunch of other people.

It was nostalgic to be back in college. Quite a few things had changed and me and my college were a bit lost as well. We couldn't stop talking about the changes—especially the grading system. In my year, there were hardly 50 or so people who got above 8.5 cgpa. Now, there were around 300! The subjects and the grading have changed.

I see some similarities in the subjects and interests of the students compared to how I was at their age but I see a ton of differences as well. The world is definitely changing. The students are way different from how we used to be. There has been so much change in the last 4 years. I don't know if the change is good, though.

It was interesting to be treated as a recruiter. We were served coffee throughout the day and lunch was great too. The placement coordinators asked for my feedback and suggestions which I don't think I was ever asked as a student. I wasn't a stand-out kid and wasn't close to any teacher (despite having been the class rep for 4 years) so it was new to be treated well by the teachers. It was weird to introduce myself and have my opinions valued in the same place where I felt powerless and lost a few years ago.

In other news, I have been sleeping better and my eye strain has reduced! My eyes do still get strained but I'm very careful about reducing light in my surroundings. I'm not working too much or staring at the screen too hard. I'm taking breaks often and I'm trying to sleep earlier.

My September started with my reader friends and it ended with them as well. I always have such a good time with them. On the initial September meet, I got them hooked on matcha bubble tea. Throughout the month, they've been taking turns craving and having matcha boba. It's so nice to see people I like enjoy the things I like.

It's not just them, it feels like more and more of my friends are having boba teas now. Especially the people I introduced it to. My friends and colleagues have them and send snaps of them to me. One of my friends randomly messaged asking if I wanted to go have bubble tea one day (I couldn't unfortunately but I ended up ordering it home later). Seeing people around me enjoy boba tea so much has made me crave it too and I had it multiple times in September 😂

A bunch of other things happened during the month which I mainly journalled about in quick jots on my phone. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to journal much in September. I wanted to journal more but life was so busy and I was exhausted every day. I didn't have the energy to write when I had free time.

In order to at least capture and record memories, I've been making quick journal entries on the Journal app on my phone. It makes things a little easier because it gives suggestions based on location, activity, and photos. So I can select photos from an outing and quickly write a paragraph. If I don't feel like typing, I take voice notes instead.

I haven't truly journaled a stream of thoughts, though. It's hard to do it on the phone and doesn't feel natural either. I like working through problems and my worries by writing on paper. An app somehow doesn't give the same feeling. Both journal methods have their pros and cons.

My current journal notebook has only 2 pages left so I've been keeping it to write a "summary" of the last few months. But maybe I'll just write a quick entry to end the book and start a new one instead. I don't feel like writing a summary anymore.

This notebook is my first journal where I simply wrote from page 1 to the end. No drawings, no fancy headings, no to-do lists. Every page is filled with writing. One or two pages have sticky notes of my annotations from books that I've unhauled and there's a letter from a friend in between. But otherwise, it's filled with thoughts. I love it.

I want to have more notebooks that don't look "aesthetic" and are filled to the brim. There's something nice about seeing so many words in the book. There's no filler content or random things. Although I like the scrapbook journal aesthetic and even the bullet journal method—I love watching vlogs where people use them—but I like it best when my journals contain only words.

Looking at them, I feel like I have something to say and a record to leave behind. Because of the way my life is captured in these pages crammed with words in black ink, it feels like I am leaving a legacy behind. Will these notebooks matter in the future? Will anyone else read them? Will anyone even care about notebooks and written words in a few decades? Who knows. I'm sure I'll treasure them, though, and that's enough.

chat with me!

How was your September? Did you read any books that left an impression on you? What was the highlight of the month? Is there anything you're looking forward to in October? Tell me in the comments!