Top Ten Tuesday #67

Hi everyone! I’m back with a new Top Ten Tuesday post this week, courtesy of the lovely ladies over at The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s prompt is Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do Or Learn About After Reading Them, which seems like a fun, albeit quite difficult prompt as I don’t exactly keep track of things that books have made me want to do, but I’ll give it a try! So here we go, the top ten things books have made me want to do/learn about:

1. Go To Greece-Greek Myths/Percy Jackson (Rick Riordan)

My parents bought me a book of Greek Myths when I was younger and I was totally obsessed with them! After reading them, I desperately wanted to go to Greece and this desire was only heightened when many years later, I read the Percy Jackson books. Hopefully, if everything works out according to plan, this long held dream of mine should come true next year, as I’m planning to go to Greece with my friends for my 21st birthday!

2. Learn Sign Language-Unbound (Neal Shusterman), Helping Hands (Lauren Brooke), but also the TV show Switched At Birth

Okay, so basically learning sign language is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I first got interested in it after reading Helping Hands, one of the Chestnut Hill books by Lauren Brooke in which Dylan learns sign language to communicate with a deaf girl who comes to Chestnut Hill for riding lessons. Then I kind of forgot about it for a few years and then this year I read Unbound, in which one of the stories has a deaf kid and the main character uses sign language to communicate with him and I was like “Oh that’s cool, I want to learn that”. Then finally, after watching Switched At Birth (where multiple characters are deaf), I actually started to learn it! Took a few years, but I got there eventually, and it all started with a book!

3. Learn Natural Horsemanship-Heartland (Lauren Brooke)

I was obsessed with the Heartland books when I was younger and I’ve always wanted to learn how to do what Amy did with horses, I mean I don’t want to have a career treating problem horses or anything but I’d love to learn some of the natural horsemanship methods described in the books and seen on the TV show. Maybe one day!

4. Go to the Circus-Circus Shoes (Noel Streatfeild)

Okay, so technically, when I was younger this probably would have been join the circus but as I’ve got older, I’ve adjusted my expectations! My parents may have taken me to a circus when I was kid, but if they did then I don’t remember, so reading this book definitely made me want to go to the circus! I still haven’t been yet, but I’m only 19, so there is still time!

5. Learn how to sword fight-Various

This one is probably a bit crazy and never going to happen, but sword fighting sounds like so much fun in books! I would love to learn how to do it!

6. Ride a horse-Various horse books

One that I’ve actually done! Granted, my obsession with horses probably started with my dad (who is equally obsessed with horses) but I’m sure that a lot of my horse obsession came from reading books like Heartland, The Saddle Club, My Secret Unicorn etc when I was a kid. I started riding twelve years ago back in 2004 and to this day, it’s still my favourite hobby!

7. Learn more about the Belgian Resistance in WWII-Cross My Heart (Carmen Reid)

I knew barely anything about the Belgian Resistance before reading this book and I feel like I learnt a lot about it through the book, but I still want to find out more! I definitely need to get around to doing some internet research or finding a book about it from my local library soon!

8. Go up the Empire State Building-Percy Jackson (Rick Riordan)

I have actually done this! I wanted to go and pretend like I was on Mount Olympus, sadly, my parents were with me so I couldn’t jokingly ask to go to the 600th floor. To be fair I doubt the people who run the ticket offices at the Empire State Building have read Percy Jackson! Still the book made me want to do it and a few years ago I did go up the Empire State Building, though admittedly, not to the top as it cost too much money, we only went to the 86th floor! Still one day, I will go all the way to the top!

9. Go to a dude ranch-The Saddle Club (Bonnie Bryant)

There was a book in the Saddle Club where Stevie, Carole and Lisa go to a dude ranch and I was like, “that’s so cool, I want to do that” and many years later (about 5 years ago now), I finally did! It was so much fun!

10. Go to Ireland-Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy)

Yes, reading Skulduggery Pleasant has given me a serious want to go to Ireland! I have a friend who lives in Northern Ireland, so hopefully one day, I can actually do this one!

11. Go To Italy-The Roman Mysteries (Caroline Lawrence)

I loved The Roman Mysteries when I was a kid and they made me desperately want to go to Italy and see some of the ancient places talked about in the books. When I was 13, I went to Naples and got to see Pompeii and Vesuvius and Herculaneum and it was amazing! I hope to go back to Italy one day and get to see places like Rome, Florence and Venice.

12. Swim with dolphins-The Dolphin Diaries (Lucy Daniels)

These are books that I read as a kid about a girl whose parents are marine biologists and they go on an expedition studying dolphins and reading those books really made me want to swim with dolphins. And when I say swim with dolphins, I don’t mean swim with dolphins like at an aquarium or something, I mean like in the wild. Wishful thinking but still. It could happen.

13. Go to the Grand National-Blind Beauty (KM Peyton)

The girl in this book competes in the Grand National and as I am smart enough to know that I will never actually compete in the Grand National, reading this book made me want to go and see the Grand National live rather than just watching it on the telly. I still haven’t done this (unless my parents took me when I was younger and I don’t remember but I don’t think so), but hopefully one day I will.

14. Visit Auschwitz-The Storyteller (Jodi Picoult)

Okay, this seems like a weird thing that reading books has made me want to do, but hear me out. Reading The Storyteller and Minka’s story of being in Auschwitz, it felt like so much more than a story, because it was. Minka represented a lot of very real people who were imprisoned and even died at Auschwitz and being a history nerd, it feels like one of those places that I just have to go.

15. Wear one of these fancy ball dresses and go to one of those fancy balls-Various fantasy books

Okay this is my one really girly thing on this list but what girl doesn’t want to go to one of those fancy balls that seem to be in a lot of fantasy books in one of those gorgeous gowns! I know I do!

16. Learn more about the Amish-Plain Truth (Jodi Picoult)

I actually knew nothing at all about the Amish before reading this book (other than that they existed obviously) and whilst I feel I learned so much about the Amish through this book, I’d love to learn more. I’d also love to visit Amish country, I reckon that would be really cool.

17. Visit Virginia-The Raven Cycle (Maggie Stiefvater)

Whilst yes, I know that the town of Henrietta is fictional, the Raven Cycle books have given me a strong desire to visit Virginia and pretend that I’m one of the Raven gang searching for dead Welsh Kings!

18. Go To Hogwarts-Harry Potter (JK Rowling)

I’m sure this will be on a lot of people’s lists, and I know that it’s never going to happen but reading Harry Potter definitely made me want to go to Hogwarts!

19. Go on a road trip with my friends (Various)

There are lots of YA books that feature protagonists going on trips with their friends, I’m thinking YA fantasy with the protagonist usually going on some kind of quest with their friends since I’m not big on contemporaries, but either way, reading these has made me want to go on a road trip with my friends. I could probably do without the monsters or villains though…..although it might be less fun without them!

20. Date fictional characters (Various)

Yup most of the books I’ve read have made me want to date fictional characters! If only I could find a real Percy Jackson…….#LifeMade

I know I went incredibly over, so I’m going to stop now even though there’s probably a thousand more things that books have probably made me want to do or learn about! What things were on your list this week? Do we share any? Are there any things you have done specifically because you’ve read about them in a book? Let me know in the comments! Next week’s topic is Top Ten Books You’d Buy This Second If Someone Handed You A Fully Loaded Gift Card. In the meantime though, I will have a review of my latest read Look Who’s Back and hopefully a Wishlist Wednesday post, so stay tuned for those.