I have to open this July recap with a confession, one that stings a little coming from someone who calls herself a heavy reader: I was in a reading slump this month. I finished only nine books in July, the fewest of any month since the start of 2026.

Less reading meant less exploring, and it showed. Out of everything I read this month, nothing hit hard enough to earn the title of Book of the Month. A few were genuinely good, but none left the kind of lasting impression that past picks have.

What Pulled Me Away

A few things pulled me away from the page.

There was a week where my mind and I simply weren’t on the same page, literally and otherwise. I couldn’t focus on anything I did, and reading was just one casualty among many. I tried my best by changing the atmosphere and environment, taking in the summer sunshine by reading at an outside cafe with proper sun and fresh air. But still, my mental clarity just doesn’t exist.

Around the same time, I got pulled into learning Finnish, which ate up the mental space I usually reserve for books.

The Reading Retreat That Pulled Me Back

Somewhere in the middle of this slump, I forced myself to join a two-hour reading retreat hosted by one of the local libraries here in Helsinki, Töölön Kirjasto. I’m glad I went. Slowly but surely, the slump started to lift. My focus came back, and with it came that familiar hunger to check what’s new on the shelves and hunt down my next read.

What I Did Instead

With less time spent between pages, I found other things to fill my hours. This month I got into nail coloring, mostly because summer humidity makes the whole process forgiving: swapping colors and using remover doesn’t irritate the skin around my nails the way it does in drier months. So I leaned into the weather and let myself play around with color.

I also spent a good chunk of my early mornings and late afternoons tending to my plants. Between the nails and the plants, my days filled up fast, and before I noticed, my usual 24/7 rhythm had quietly disappeared.

By the end of the month, though, the first signs of recovery started showing, thanks to the library’s book retreat event. Here’s hoping they hold.

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Reading this recap back, I realize it mostly sounds like a long list of excuses for why I didn’t read enough. Maybe that’s exactly what it is. Either way, I’m hoping August gives me less to explain and more books to actually talk about.