Top Ten Tuesday: Books Inspired Me To…

Books are full of fantastic new worlds, amazing heroes, tantalizing villains, and dozens of different skills and traits to learn about. Books are basically an endless source of inspiration for new hobbies. Goodness knows I’ve wanted to pick up a few of those hobbies over the years. Now, let’s take a look at some of those, shall we?

Books Inspired Me To…

1. Grow apple trees
   I’ve always thought it’d be cool to garden, but after reading ‘At The Edge of the Orchard‘, my interest in apple trees was sparked. I can’t wait to graduate from school, buy a house, and grow my own apple trees. I’ll make apple butter and applesauce and maybe some pies. :p
2. Learn to fence
   I’m not sure what kid wouldn’t want to learn to fence after reading daring tales of sword fighting. It might be rather pointless, but it’d be pretty amazing, if you ask me! (P.s. I actually used to fence in middle school and I really enjoyed it, but other hobbies took priority and now I haven’t fenced in many years. *sigh*)
3. Be physically strong
   This may seem silly, but ‘Hunger Games’ inspired me to want to work  out more. For many people, the zombie apocalypse is their inspiration, but now me. I want to work out more (once my life finds a rhythm again) and train like my life depends on it because that seems like a good (and fun) reason to me.
4. Travel to magical worlds
   Oh, come on! Who hasn’t wanted to walk through a wardrobe into Narnia?! I mean, that’s like every child’s dream! (At least the ones with imaginations!)
5. Take etiquette classes
   This actually probably sounds really silly, but I think etiquette classes would be rather fun. I may want to learn to fight, but there is just something really intriguing about learning proper place settings and manners (partly because manners were big in my household as a child.) That and part of me secretly wants to be a snob. :p (Don’t worry, I don’t let her out very often. Haha!)
6. Publish a post-apocalyptic book
   I can’t say this was inspired by any single book, but rather a menagerie of the genre. I just love the opportunities that post-apoc allows for plots and characters and settings. It’s so versatile. Yet, I still well in the void of unfinished manuscripts and certainly unpublished. So, this may be a while. :p
7. Become more proficient musically
   Oh yeah. After reading ‘If I Stay‘, I felt like a total failure. I played like a banshee in high school, but my musical love has died off since then and I can’t remember the last time I touched my violin. Yet, this book reminded me of my passion and my drive to be an amazing musician. So, I hope to pick this hobby back up once I settle in Georgia next week. (Oh my gosh! Next week! Look for an update this Saturday about my moving progress! 0.0)
8. Learn survival skills
   Okay, the influence here is probably from a hodge-podge of books. Mainly post-apocs. However, I think ‘Lord of the Flies’ may have been the original influencer here (goodness knows how many years ago.) I may never use it. (Hopefully, I’ll never have to,) but I really want to gain the skills required to live in the wilderness should an apocalypse ever occur.
9. Learn science speak
   Yeah… that sounds pretty silly considering I’m about to start my PhD in genetics, but let me explain. I want to gain the ability to understand enough of science so that I can implement it into a story and make it thoroughly science fiction. Don’t know what I mean? Check out ‘Ready Player One‘. I didn’t know half the stuff mentioned, but I respect the amount of detail and research went into writing that book.
10. Learn/Create a language
    Gosh! I love fantasy for this one because you can tell when an author is really into their story when they create languages for their other species. I would love to learn how to create a language. I barely understand the mechanics of my own language, much less the others I speak. I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but maybe someday…

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Have you ever been interested in any of these skills? Let me know which ones! And leave me a link to your TTT in the comments below!