November was a whirlwind. Writing for National Novel Writing Month took up most of my free time, and general life stress took up the rest. Unfortunately, I barely read anything all month long.

By “barely read,” I mean I dipped in and out of my three main current reads: Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers, and The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. So far I’m feeling so-so about the latter two, but I am enjoying the former. I have also abandoned my smutty romance novel obsession for the time being; I think the time change (less sunlight) and general end of the year blues are to blame for my lack of reading this month.

Books Read

• None

NaNoWriMo

I’m including my National Novel Writing Month conclusion here rather than making a separate post, just because I don’t have much more to say than I did in my last update. I started this round of NaNoWriMo with no preparation, and no actual goal – until last week when I decided I wanted to reach 16,000 words. I finished out the month with 19,227 words, so I’m feeling good about where I ended up. And while I don’t have any immediate plans to look over all of those words, scenes, and paragraphs, I do want to return to them eventually.

Miscellany

Like I briefly alluded to at the beginning of this post, November felt pretty slumpy in nearly every way. But here on December 1st, I’m feeling hopeful about finding some time to read, blog, and enjoy the days ahead. Like most of us say every December, I cannot believe the end of the year is so close. I hope you’re able to find a few peaceful moments amidst everything else, and I hope at least some of those moments include a great book.

What did you read (or not read) in November? If you participated in NaNoWriMo, how did it go? If you’ve written a Wrap-Up, feel free to link it in the comments!