My own personal readathon

13 Jan, 2026

Been reading a lot lately. My spirits might be in the dumps, but my mind is high in the clouds. Thing is, so far I haven't read anything truly... good. At least nothing that satisfy my literary predilections. Ever since finishing The Daevabad Trilogy, I've been trying to fill the hole it left in my heart. Maybe that's the wrong way to go about it, which would explain my low ratings so far. And also, it's not by accident that the author go so many awards for it. These books are amazing plot-wise, the political intrigue and world building are an absolute and utter delight. Maybe the writing style didn't resonate with me, but that doesn't take anything away from this amazing series.

So when you go a try to read stuff that "has the same vibe"... you'll end up disappointed, because not a lot compares to Chakraborty's series. I should've known.

So far, the books I've read:

• Cackle by Rachel Harrison [½]
• The Wrath & The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh []
• The Summer War by Naomi Novik []
• We Hunt the Light by Hafsah Faizal [½]
• The River of Silver (Daevabad Trilogy 4) by Shannon Chakraborty []

Commentary on them can be found on LibraryThing or my Listography.

However... it's been decades since I read this much in such a short period of time. I'm afraid deleting social media apps from my phone isn't the main reason for this, though. I quit Instagram and deleted other "scrollable" social apps back in October 2024, so about a year and a half ago. No, I think there are three main factors at play here:

• Audiobooks,
• Being in-between projects, and
• Being sick af.

As an ADHDer, it's pretty hard for me to stay focused on audiobooks if I'm not doing a mechanical chore. If I sit down to just listen to it (aka do nothing) or have to do anything more complex, I lose the thread. It's a very specific type of physical activity that gets me engaged. That's why I've never been too much into audiobooks, though I do have my listening phases.

But.

I've come to realize I can use the audiobooks as a springboard to reading. I'll start listening to a book and sooner or later I end up picking up the digital copy to read when I sit down and can't focus just on the audio. For a person that struggles a lot with initiation paralysis, audiobooks have become a balm to my soul.

... I wish work had audiobooks too.

#blog #eng #reading