Bookwyrm Breakdown: Reading Pretty Much Exited the Chat

It feels like reading has collectively exited or nearly exited the chat for the book community as a whole throughout September (at least from what I’ve seen in the brief moments I’ve been on Twitter, that is). I was missed last year for sure, but this year I’ve definitely been caught by the ankles of no motivation to read.

But it’s finally chilly! (And I can actually roll myself into a burrito at night, so while it’s not yet time for hoodie season just yet, it’s sooo close I can practically feel it.)

September Musings

• [1 Sep] The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim ★★★★
• [9 Sep] Bookwyrm Breakdown: August 2022, Where Burnout is Definitely a Thing™
• [14 Sep] Secrets of the Looking Glass by J. Scott Savage ★★★★
• [23 Sep] Love Between Fairy and Devil (2022)
• [27 Sep] Oversize Love (2020)

Books Hoarded

I got one book! (Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually got more games than books this month…)

• The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry

Books Devoured

I don’t know about the rest of you, but reading was rough in September. I wanted to read, but the motivation? The effort to pick up the book? Yeah, it was not there. At all. But I did read a small handful of books! (Only three, which is better than nothing.)

• Secrets of the Looking Glass by J. Scott Savage
• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao – I actually enjoyed it more in audiobook (narrated by Rong Fu) than as an eARC, which I highly recommend!
• The Lost Sisters by Holly Black – I don’t care about Taryn, and I never did while reading The Folk of the Air trilogy. But I did enjoy the audiobook.

Before we even get into what I consumed, let’s just talk about two big things that happened in September because I’m just over the wall freaking excited, and yes, I must share with the universe even if the universe may be aware of these things.

1. Xiran Jay Zhao’s debut YA novel, Iron Widow, got optioned for film! Weirdly the night before this was announced, I had a dream about “What if this was a movie? It would be absolutely cool?” I got to reread the book for a readalong in a Discord server in audiobook throughout September, and I honestly enjoyed it more than when I first read it as an eARC last year. Either way, I’m excited about this!
   • Okay, but what if I somehow roped my mom into reading this just by saying Wu Zetian because she’s actually one of my mom’s favorite historical figures… except I don’t think this book is something she’ll enjoy, and that pains me.
   • I mean, she was snooping on my copy of Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor when I first got it (and middle-grade novels are definitely not something she likes reading), so we’ll see. 👀
2. PERCY JACKSON TEASER. “LOOK, I DIDN’T WANT TO BE A HALF-BLOOD.” I’m screaming, that is all. And yes, I absolutely dared to put this second after Iron Widow, do not come after me.

Now that we have the two biggest news from September out of the way (there were other things that happened, too, like Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action cast announcements), let’s talk about the things I watched throughout the month!

• Love Between Fairy and Devil – If anyone else watches Chinese dramas, you might have heard of this one because this has been gaining hype since the end of August, and it was my entire personality for a week straight while I was binging this during my week off.
• Oversize Love – It’s one of those that probably had a good concept and message, but the execution was not it.
• Best Mistake – Short and sweet, and not my favorite, but I have Best Mistake 2 on my watchlist currently.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 2) – Finally! I made it through Season 2! We won’t count exactly how many months that took; no, we won’t.
• Everything, Everywhere, All At Once – I was kind of confused about how the multiverse worked, but I think that’s mostly due to the fact my brain has been feeling a bit fried lately. At times it was outrageous, but this movie spoke so much to me in so many different ways — the intermingling of languages in the house, the relationship dynamics with Evelyn and Joy and Waymond, etc.

It’s been a while since I talked about music, but I’ve been in my nostalgia era for the most part (I can’t tell you how many times I keep listening to Alessia Cara’s Scars to Your Beautiful in the past month, and I don’t know why). While I’ve been keeping up with new releases from a few artists, I didn’t exactly take note of them… but here are a few I remember off the top of my head:

• KINGDOM is making a comeback in October with the next of their History of Kingdom album series, this time with Louis. The announcement, though, was in September, so that counts.
  • They also added a new member Hwon to the group since Chiwoo left earlier this year due to personal reasons.
• Blackpink made a comeback on my birthday with their album, Born Pink! Pink Venom was very catchy though the chorus personally felt off-tune for me. It’s slowly growing on me, though, along with Shut Down.
• NMIXX released Entwurf, continuing the beat change in the middle of the song that was in their debut. Personally, I liked Dice more than O.O, though. It was definitely experimentation, but it felt like there was more structure this time that felt a little more cohesive. Cool was my favorite, though.
• The OST for Love Between Fairy and Devil, especially Parting Love (诀爱) by Faye (Chan Wenting) and The Oath of Canglan (苍兰契) by Li Changchao.
• League of Legends released the Worlds 2022 Anthem, Star Walkin’ by Lil Nas X, which I really like.
  • I’ll agree that it’s definitely not as powerful as the previous ones, but it doesn’t have to be? (Personally, I liked it, though.)

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

So burnout was a thing in August, but not the worst type of burnout, thankfully. I almost always catch myself before I truly get the worst of it, but a lot of the time, I also think I’m just so used to operating at the bare minimum of spoons (mental health stigma, fun times) that it’ll likely take a lot before it’s actually the worst of it. I’d really prefer not to get there, honestly.

But September is usually the month I take a week off (since it’s my birthday month) and use up the PTO time that I’ve accumulated, and it was so welcoming, even if a week doesn’t feel like it’s enough to recharge fully. I’ll take small mercies, though. I spent a lot of that time stress sleeping in, and for once, I actually woke up one day actually feeling energized after a long time (I went back to stress sleeping the next day, though).

Other things I did during that time of reprieve (outside of sleeping):

• Celebrated 25th birthday (god, I’m old) by playing Littlewood most of the day and hanging out with friends virtually on Discord (I’d get ice cream for myself, but yeah… didn’t feel like going out the whole week).
• Kind of got addicted to Littlewood a little for a couple of days after.
• Cleared out most of my review backlog (didn’t get through all of it, but eh, I did my best).
• Become very fascinated with my stats for Reasons™. Poor Clo has been dealing with my fascinations for the past week.
  • We’re actually both fascinated, to be honest.

I also started catching up on comments that I didn’t get around to and did some blog hopping, including a few new-to-me blogs. Who am I, and what happened to the real me? (Knowing me, I’ll probably fall behind again.)

Let’s talk: tell me about your September!