October Wrap Up: Highlights of the Month

It’s the month of spookiness and merriness. Western countries are all about Halloween this month of October. Well, we also celebrated Halloween. In fact, I saw quite a number of people on Instagram and Facebook who dressed up in a Halloween costume. At the same time, October marked the second merry month as we continue to count down to Christmas. Do you feel merry yet? Well, I’m feeling it, a little bit. Perhaps it’s because I was able to go out more this past month. It’s good for my mental health to be able to meet friends and travel, even just around NCR. In fact, that’s why my featured photo for October wrap up is that of the LRT station. It’s the first time in more than a year that I hopped on a train and went to the city Manila.

Here are some other things I’d like to share with you guys my October highlights.

Mental Health Awareness Week

In the Philippines, every second week of October is National Mental Health Awareness Week and our office thankfully gave us 3 additional paid leaves as part of celebrating it. It was a welcome break I happily took. These days, with or without a travel plan, any break I can get, I will take. And I treasure those days and make sure I use it to do stuff I enjoy doing such as reading books or watching a series or movie on streaming apps I have. Breaks are so important to avoid burnouts. It’s also a good time to reflect on how life is going for me. I love that I had a three-day break this October.

Reading Progress

I broke my reading record last month. I was able to finish reading 4 books! Three of the four books were part of a series, Lauren Conrad’s Fame Game, which is the photo above. I won’t be delving into it so much already since it’s much like another series she wrote and I reviewed, LA Candy. It’s also about reality TV except this time, the characters aren’t all unknown. They’re already either reality TV stars or a daughter of a famous couple or had a hit cover song on Youtube. See, the difference with this series and of Conrad’s previous one is that the characters of this story are trying to make it in show business. It’s as entertaining to read as the first series and just as light too. Also I liked this series better. I thought it showed a little bit more complexity in the characters’ personalities.

The fourth book I was able to finish reading in October is a novel by James Patterson. from his detective Alex Cross series called I, Alex Cross. I’m going to do a review of that book separately. My 2021 GoodReads Reading Challenge is now at 17 books read, out of 20. I’ve almost reached my goal.

What I Watched in October

I finished Homeland early in October. It’s now my favorite series of all time which I shared in my newsletter. I started streaming a different series on Amazon Prime, Fear the Walking Dead. It’s a prequel to the Walking Dead though I’ve not seen that series. I thought it was going to be a scary series that would’ve been perfect for the spooky season. After all, it has zombies in it. How wrong I was!

Oh well. So I wrapped up October without watching anything scary for Halloween for the second year in a row.

Content Creation Project Updates

While not as many as in September, I did get another blogging work this month. I even landed my first side banner ad placement! Did you guys see? I’m pretty psyched about that! When I look back in my blogging journey, I can’t help but be amazed at how far I’ve come along. I’ve definitely been writing more for one thing and even more open to sharing what I write to the world. And even more awesome? This blog’s helped me earn extra cash!

Also, I’m going to start writing in my newsletter more. If you enjoy what I write here, it’s the kind of stuff I still will write there. Only they’re short-form contents.

Announcing My New Business Venture

I’ve taken my love for books to a new level! By making a living out of it. Yes, I’m now in the book business. It’s something I’ve been mulling about since last year. We finally launched it this October and so I’m sharing this great news to you guys as part of this month’s wrap up.

I talked about it with a friend of mine who’s interest lies in aesthetic home decors and that’s how we came up with our new business, Reader’s Den MNL, where we sell coffee table books. It’s the right business venture for us both I think. He loves aesthetic home decors and I love books. Coffee table books are interesting to read and display around the house too! If you’re from the Philippines, please do follow and support our business.

Shopping Loves in October

I did some shopping in October and these are the ones that I really liked and I can’t let this wrap up post end without talking about some of the items I bought that made me happy.

Got 20 Archie Comics Double Digest from Lazada only cost me Php400+! At Php99/comic in bookstores and supermarkets, the price is already a steal!

Shoes from La Soledad. First ones I bought since last year’s pandemic began.

And finally, this Kate Spade coffee table book. Second-hand item I bought from Carousell.

Well that’s it for my October wrap up! Can you believe it’s just two months to go before 2022? Have you started thinking of your goals for 2022 yet?