life – iyashikei in words

on writing when you have -578 motivation

Motivation is one of those things that is completely elusive to me. I barely recognise and make use of it when I do have it; and most of the time, I have to find ways to compensate for its lack. Writing is hard enough on a good day when the…
on the storygraph

There are several apps out there to find new books, track your reading, create virtual bookshelves, and do all things book-related. There are even Notion templates for the same, which let you have maximum customisability. I’ve tried out several of these options over the years, including the classic Goodreads, but…
on reading for bingo: part 4

Honkaku. My Achilles’ heel. If I had to choose only one genre of books to read and give up everything else, it would be honkaku. Roughly translating to ‘orthodox’ in English, it is a Japanese school of writing which is somewhat equivalent to the classic ‘whodunnit’ genre in the West.…
on reading for bingo: part 3

Japanese novels are the equivalent of a black hole for me. The minute I finish one book, I am somehow found by another and then another and… Suffice to say, the following two books are translated Japanese works. (Okay, two books doesn’t warrant the description of a black hole, but there’s…
on reading for bingo: part 2

Another blog post less than a week after the previous one? Who is she? It’s not that I was suddenly seized by a reading frenzy and completed Bingo, it’s just that I had a lot of thoughts about the following book. The Cosy Cat Society by Charlie Lyndhurst [NetGalley e-ARC]…
on reading for bingo: part 1

I thought my Book Bingo post would make me read more intentionally. Look at the categories on the Card, and pick books accordingly. But apparently, I do not like being told what to read, least of all by past-me. So, I’m continuing my habit of just reading whatever catches my…
on book bingo

Despite superficially claiming my blog as a space to share my thoughts or experiences or even a rant on something that caught my eye, I can be incredibly picky about what I end up actually publishing. I’ve discussed this before in my post about the blogger’s block I experienced a…
on a slice of life #2

It’s been a tiring day. Your brain is a bit fried because you overworked it trying to get past a writing block. You wrap up work and come out into the living room to find your partner cooking dinner. The absolute sweetheart. He’s been insistent on taking over more of the…
on a slice of life #1

Every so often, there will come along a very ordinary moment in the midst of a very ordinary day. A moment where seemingly nothing happens, but it is infused with comfort and a strong sense of being alive in that instant. There’s no telling when or why it happens, but…
on blogger’s block

When you started your blog, it didn’t seem too difficult a task to post about one thing just once a week. It didn’t have to be anything intellectual, just something you were passionate, excited, or curious about. A book. A movie. A childhood memory. A recent win. Anything. You did…