Top Ten Tuesdays are hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. Today's topic is Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do Or Learn After Reading Them. This is a great topic, but also hard because sometimes it's difficult to remember the exact books that made me want to do things. Like, I love books in which a woman moves to a new town and buys a house all of her own and fixes it up while developing a romance with a local, but although I know I've read more than one book like that, I can only think of one specifically. It's also important to note that I haven't actually done most of these things. It's more like I was inspired for a moment and then realized that it would take effort, and of course in other cases it's impossible. Still, it was fun coming up with the list!
1. Make maple syrup snow candy
Inspired by: the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (This is the easiest thing on the list and I've still not done it!)
2. Move to a new place and live in a cute little house
Inspired by: Mariana by Susanna Kearsley is the one that comes to mind, but I know there are a ton more!
3. Relive my teenage years but do a better job of it
Inspired by: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and every other book starring a confident, self-aware teenager.
4. Go on an amazing and life-changing adventure
Inspired by: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
5. Learn some survival skills
Inspired by: The Hunger Games, The Martian, every post-apocalyptic novel ever, and the Little House books.
6. Change my life for the better
Inspired by: Reinventing You, Stand Out, The Power of Habit, The Wise Heart, Becoming a Life Change Artist...anything I've read about self-improvement or career development
7. Move back to my hometown
Inspired by: The Best Man by Kristin Higgins
I would never actually move back to my hometown, but I'd like to be that character moving back to her hometown.
8. Eat better
Inspired by: The Omnivore's Dilemma and other books by Michael Pollan, The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway, various books by Mark Bittman
For a while I read a ton of books about food and although my eating has changed a lot over the years, I've gotten to a point where I've read so much about what you should and should not eat that I no longer know what is healthy. So I just eat whatever I want usually, but I do try to reduce my intake of processed foods.
9. Live in the English countryside
Inspired by: Jane Austen, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, many others. This plan keeps looking better and better to me.
10. Be an upper-class lady in Regency England
Inspired by: Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover by Sarah MacLean, Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn, A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant, The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan (which I think is not Regency, but I'm not picky.) I realize that I wouldn't actually want to be a woman at that time, but I kind of like the idea of dressing up all the time and not having a job.
Maybe someday I'll actually do these things. (Time travel can happen, can't it?) In the meantime, I'll just enjoy everything vicariously through the books I read!
2 comments:
I know I've read a few books about a woman moving and fixing up a cute old house and finding romance too, but the only one I can think of is "Under the Tuscan Sun" (which, though I own, I haven't actually read, just seen the movie).
Reading has convinced me that I definitely do NOT want to be a woman living in another time period (at least not pre-1960s or so) but how awesome would it be to time travel back to Regency England for just a week or two? I have a feeling it would get boring and miserable FAST, but I wouldn't mind some time to go sew, read, attend a house party and go horseback riding in the country.
Speaking of which, I would be happy to be your neighbor in the English countryside, in an old stone cottage with country blue shutters and a gorgeous overgrown garden, of course!
Oh yes, I've read Under the Tuscan Sun also!
We can definitely be neighbors in our imaginary English cottages!
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