The Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly challenge post previously hosted by The Broke and Bookish and now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. You can follow along for each weekly post here. This week’s topic is all about the things you do when you’re NOT reading, which, for me, is a lot lately because I’ve barely been reading anything LOL. But honestly, it did take awhile for me to get new hobbies for sure! Reading is my number one hobby but I promise, I do like to do other things!
Pandemic Has Totally Messed Up ALL My Reading Habits
I know I’m not the only one that feels like this year has literally been the longest year literally ever. I can hardly remember the beginning of the year, when things were so bright and possible. I had annual passes to both Disneyland and Universal Studios, I went to Seattle for my birthday, I had my badges all ready for WonderCon and San Diego Comic Con. I had high hopes for a wonderful year. Covid knocked a lot of us off of our feet and its been like a punch to the gut, mentally and emotionally, for me all year.
Knocking Things Off My 40 Before 40 Bucket List
In just a few months, I’ll be turning 33 years old and that means there’s only seven years until I’m 40. And okay, that’s a realllly long time and not that big of a deal haha but I created a list several months ago, my 40 things I want to do or accomplish before I’m 40 years old. When I’m 50, I’ll create a 50 by 50 and so forth. I’ve been working on knocking some of these off of my bucket list and I want to share some of the things I’ve accomplished so far. If you’d like to see the full list, you can read it here!
Don’t Support Prime Day! Support These Businesses Instead!
Guys, I’ll be honest – I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I do. On one hand, I’m broke and its hard to turn down the prices of the things that I get through Amazon – I’d love to buy from smaller businesses more often but its just hard. I don’t make a lot and after rent and my car payment and bills and all of that…its just hard. I’m also a self published author and, let’s face it, most of my sales come through KDP because that’s the best option for a self pub author.
On the other hand, I know that Amazon is a corporation just like all corporations and that the workers are paid crap while the big head honcho, Jeff Bezos, sits on a pile of money that can never be spent in his lifetime. I also know that on sales like these, the employees are worked to the bone AND it clogs up the USPS system and that’s the last thing we need right with just a matter of weeks until an insanely crucial election. So…
NO PRIME DAY. Seriously, whatever it is you want to buy? It can wait. It can absolutely wait. I won’t lie. I’ve been on Amazon today and there’s a fair amount of stuff on sale that has made me go, hmmm, but NO. Its not worth it. It’s not worth the trouble it causes for the workers and Amazon needs to learn to pay their workers more and to stop funneling all the money into Jeff Bezo’s pockets.
Instead, today I want to highlight some of my favorite small businesses that deserve your money today SO much more! There are a handful of bookstores BUT there’s also some other cool stuff as well!
Book Review: Instant Karma ARC by Marissa Meyer
Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. Her dreams of karmic justice are fulfilled when, after a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her.
Blog Tour: Spotlight on Breathless by Jennifer Niven {Review and Giveaway!}
From Jennifer Niven, the New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places, comes an unforgettable new novel about a sensitive girl ready to live her bravest life–sex, heartbreak, family dramas, and all.
I can’t begin to explain HOW excited I am to be hosting this stop on the blog tour for Jennifer Niven’s new novel, Breathless. This novel’s synopsis immediately caught my eye and I love reading Jennifer’s books anyhow – she writes such beautiful, emotional novels and I’m so glad I was able to be a part of this release. I received a package in the mail – surprise! – with a signed book and all kinds of goodies and it was truly so awesome! Today we are celebrating the release with a spotlight on the book and the author, a short review – I’m still technically reading the book – and a giveaway! Let’s do this!
