10 Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do

Oh, books, I do so love you. And one of the reasons I love you is all the crazy and/or enriching things you inspire me to do! The week's Top Ten Tuesday topic (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) is about just that.

1. Travel.

One of the best things about reading is getting to travel the world vicariously through our protagonists, and I have added so many places to my bucket list because of books: Antarctica, Santorini, the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, Bali, the list goes on and on.

After reading "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, a non-fiction book about a serial killer striking Chicago at the same time the 1893 World's Fair took over the city, I dragged my husband to the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, so we could see the gardens at designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (he also designed the landscaping in Central Park), and I would love to visit The Rookery in Chicago, designed by the architects from the book, Burnham and Root.

And when we were stationed in Hawaii last time around, I read the novel "Molokai" by Alan Brennert, and my husband and I actually flew to the island of Molokai and did a mule ride tour down the cliffs to Kalaupapa, the real-life leper exile colony from the book.

A couple photos from our mule ride to Kalaupapa. I won't lie, there were a few white-knuckle moments when I was gripping the saddle horn for dear life!

2. Eat.

Chocolat chaud, clotted cream, a full English breakfast, butterbeer and so very much more. Books have inspired me to try or made me hope to one day sample so many different foods. After reading Julia Child's autobiography "My Life in France," I was inspired to bake her Queen of Sheba cake for my birthday that year. (Her book also inspired me to finally buy a mortar and pestle.)

Holy shit, I can't believe this was almost 5 years ago!?

3. Become fluent in another language.

I've always loved languages, and I did really well in my high school French and college German classes, though I've forgotten a lot over the years. There are many reasons I'd love to become fluent in another language, and the reading-inspired reasons are three-fold:

1. I just really, really love words. And the root of so many of our words and phrases is in Latin. Plus, I'd love to know the exact meaning of all those Latin phrases I come across reading!

2. Every time I read a book set in another country (especially one I'd love to visit) I think about how nice it would be to actually be able to converse with the locals in their language when I travel there.

3. When I read books that have been translated from their original language, I always wonder what nuances and subtleties got lost in the switch to English that would make for such a richer reading experience in the author's native language.

4. Buy Carlton Ware egg cups.

Several years ago (maybe way back in college?) I read the Jennifer Crusie novel "Fast Women," and the main character collects Carlton Ware egg cups. As is typical when I encounter something unfamiliar in a book, I just had to Google them -- and they turned out to be so delightfully quirky and kitschy that I decided I just had to have one, or many. For months I cruised Ebay in search of the perfect one to buy but I never took the plunge.

(source)

5. Have a natural burial.

Caitlin Doughty's fascinating memoir of working at a crematory, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory," really got me thinking about what I'd want to happen to my body when I die -- something I hadn't given all that much consideration. Caitlin's book answers all your morbid-curiosity questions about the funeral industry, but it also asks why we feel all those practices are so necessary now when they weren't 100 years ago; how has our society become so distanced from death? I really didn't know what went into preparing a body for a traditional funeral and quite honestly, I was horrified. I don't want to be pumped full of chemicals or have my mouth wired shut to keep from offending anyone with my dead tongue. I'm not religious, and I like the idea of giving back to nature -- a part of this world that has given me so much joy. I'd prefer a natural burial, maybe in one of those new pods that uses your remains to nurture a tree, or just directly into the earth. And it's thanks to "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" that I started thinking about these (rather important) issues in the first place.

6. Have an apiary.

Thanks to the semi-retired Sherlock Holmes in Laurie R. King's mystery series (plus getting the best honey I've ever had at a small apiary in Tennessee and following a knitter/farmer on Instagram who keeps bees), I have decided I would love to take up beekeeping one day!

7. Train guide dogs.

I've read two wonderful memoirs about the life-changing marvels that are guide dogs, "Until Tuesday" by Luis Carlos Montalvan, about a dog saving a former Army captain from debilitating PTSD, and "Thunder Dog" by Michael Hingson, about a seeing-eye dog who helped his owner escape the World Trade Center on 9/11. My husband I adore dogs and are constantly commenting about what remarkable creatures they are, and training guide dogs seems like such a fabulous way to make a difference in the world -- while getting our canine fix.

8. Download a dictionary app for my phone.
I'm obsessed with looking up everything I see or read that I don't know. What kind of flower is that? Where have I seen that actor before? What the heck is furikake? And I loooove words, so reading inspired me to download a dictionary app on my phone so I always have the ability to look up new-to-me words I encounter reading. Most recently I looked up polymath: someone who knows a lot about many different things.

9. Watch '80s movies.
"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline is a delightfully immersive dive into '80s pop culture seen through the lens of a dystopian future. Since I was born in the mid-'80s, I missed out on a lot of movies made during that decade, and after reading "RPO" I added some of the movies from the book to my to-watch list. So far, I've only seen "Ladyhawke," which was, admittedly, kinda weird.

10. Be more conscious about my social media postings, check my privacy settings and make stronger passwords.
One of the most memorable books I've read this year is "You" by Caroline Kepnes, about America's favorite sociopath stalker/bookstore employee, Joe Goldberg. And the ease with which Joe does his spying -- by reading text messages on a copied phone and tracking social media posts -- is downright terrifying.