Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want to Do

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s topic is Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do or Learn About After Reading Them. I really like this topic, but I can’t take it seriously. I don’t read a ton of contemporary books, so I don’t have a lot of “real life” or practical ideas for this topic.

Instead, I’ve chosen to take a more humorous route. Some of these options are possible, some are impossible, some are just ridiculous.

1. Go to a prep school—because of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Are you telling me that you don’t want to go to Aglionby Academy after reading the Raven Cycle? It would have to be co-ed, but still.

2. Learn to throw knives—because of Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Really, every book with a badass protagonist probably involves throwing knives, but Graceling was the first novel like that that I read, so it gets credit for my (slightly troubling) desire to learn how to throw knives at people.

3. Learn to pick locks—because of The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

A lot of characters pick locks, but none of them do it with quite as much sass as Gen in The Thief.

4. Learn archery—because of The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Every scene involving archery and Shazi in TWATD was amazing (and hilarious) to read. I don’t just want to learn archery, I want to be as good as she is.

5. Befriend a dozen beauty queens and learn their deepest secrets—because of Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Honestly, who doesn’t want to do this after reading this book?

6. Visit the Night Circus—because of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Ahh, the first impossible thing on this list. I would hand over my life savings to get to visit the magical world that is the Night Circus.

7. Go to outer space—because of the Starbound trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

I loved all of the descriptions of space ships and outer space in the Starbound trilogy. I could do without the forces of evil and freaky hallucinations, though.

8. Ride a water horse—because of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

I would love to ride one of the water horses that Stiefvater describes in this book, though preferably one like Corr that wouldn’t kill me. I’d also like to meet Sean Kendrick, as long as we’re talking about impossible things.

9. Learn to paint—because of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Feyre’s love of painting was one of the most gorgeous parts of her character in this book. I don’t just want to paint, I want to love it the way that Feyre loves it.

10. Learn to fly planes—because of Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein

All of Wein’s books make me want to learn to fly. The imagery that she uses to describe being a pilot is beautiful and vivid enough to make me forget how often planes crash or people die in her stories.

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Do you want to learn/do any of these things? Have you read any of these books? What things are on your list this week?