October Wrap Up 2025

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Oh October, what a whirlwind. I went to three plays, had my parents in town for the week, did tons of assignments as the semester ratcheted up, and went on a number of other social events from the zoo to Halloween. Mixed into all this, I tried to dedicate a massive chunk of my life to both reading and writing since that's what I moved to Ireland to do. I've gotten back into audiobook listening along with podcasts as I've settled into living alone again. I've also gotten into the library hold system, so now I have tons of books coming in with time limits, incentivizing me to read quickly. On top of that, I've read lots of short stories, some for class but mostly for fun. 

The Stats

In total, I read 13 books with two books I've been reading throughout October that I will be finishing today or tomorrow, making a solid start to my November reading. I read 5 novels (I'm roping Simple Passion in here cause it's more akin to a novel than the other nonfiction books I read), 3 short story collections, and 5 nonfiction books. Of that, 7 were in print, 2 were e-books, and 4 were audiobooks. So my reading stats are making a comeback, and I hope they'll hold out for the rest of the year! I like this mix of nonfiction and fiction. The novels feel low, but the novels I've been reading (two at the same time) at the end of the month are rolling into November. 

Writing

This month, I decided to focus on short stories and focus on my novel over the winter break. Short stories are easier to chew on while I'm so busy and running around to so many different things and switching between school assignments. This ended up working out nicely. I got lots of short story submissions into magazines, which is always exciting but also draining, and I finished four short stories this month, which comes out to one a week. That's pretty good. In November, I want to keep writing short stories, but I also want to do more creative journaling on bigger projects. 

What I'm Reading Now

I'm currently reading The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P on my Kindle at night, so it's slow going, and Gunk as a library paperback I'm nearly through. I'm flying through Gunk, and I would've read it in two days if I didn't pick it up while my parents were here for reading week. I haven't settled into a new audiobook yet. Currently, I have two more books out from the library, Spiraling and Second Self. These need to be read ASAP, but I also finally got Lily King's new book from the bookstore as an early Christmas present from my parents, so I might be bad and skip straight ahead to that even though I own it. My mom brought me some books from home, so my shelf is starting to fill out again! I'd say October was all in a successful month, and I can't wait to share the reviews from all the books I've read this month

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