Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Things Books Have Encouraged Me To Do or Learn About

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

This week's post is all about the things that books have encouraged us to do or learn about after reading them. Without further ado, let's get on to our list!

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Sierra's Picks

Death at Seaworld · David Kirby
Goodreads

Death at Seaworld is a non-fiction book written about the disasters of captivity for orcas. I read this before Blackfish was released. So I like to say that I joined the bandwagon early on, before the Blackfish effect took place. This helped form my beliefs about animal captivity and started me down a long and dark orca binge that all my roommates at the time could attest to.

The Dolphin Diaries · Ben M. Baglio
Goodreads

SCUBA DIVING. This is a book I re-read over and over again and as a child and was so jealous of the main character. She got to travel the world with her family on a ship while her parents got to study dolphins. Since she was 12 years old, she had her scuba diving license. That sparked my lifelong goal which I achieved a couple of years ago!

Alex Rider · Anthony Horowitz
Goodreads

As a child, I thought Alex Rider was a god. He could get out of any scrape, could basically do anything. I wanted to BE him. He did martial arts (so do I), could scuba dive (I did that too), flew a plane (I have a pilot's license), etc. There are still a few more things on my Alex Rider bucket list, like skiing and such. Obviously I realize how impractical the teenage spy story is. But it was filled with so much life and adventure! It was all I ever wanted as a child.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar And Six More · Roald Dahl
Goodreads

After reading the Henry Sugar story, I spent HOURS trying to learn how to read cards. Not just hours. DAYS. WEEKS. You had to give me an A for effort.

Birthright · Nora Roberts
Goodreads

I was already fond of history and artifacts. But this book (yes, I know it is a Nora Roberts novel...) made me think about being an archaeologist. I did countless research to figure out the best schools, the best course of study. Ultimately I didn't end up choosing that route, but I still appreciate this book for introducing me to that life. And one of my favorite romances of all time.

Black Beauty · Anna Sewell
Goodreads

This is another one of my favorite childhood books that I re-read. I also watched the movie adaptation religiously. I love horses, but didn't have access to them as a child. I remember being put on a horse at the age of 10 and having the firm belief that I KNEW how to ride because I had read so many books on the subject! I really believed that reading how to do something meant that you automatically knew how to do it. I learned the hard way that it wasn't always the case :P. I finally got to take horseback riding lessons at 14. Best moment of my life!

Earth's Children · Jean M. Auel
Goodreads

In a previous Top Ten Tuesday, I talk about how this series taught me about sex. But I also learned a lot of about being a survivor and a time period that is rarely written about. This introduced me to biological anthropology. I also went through a period of trying to identify plants and medicinal herbs. That didn't last too long. The outside world doesn't always agree with me.

Lies We Tell Ourselves · Robin Talley
Goodreads

Having grown up outside of the United States, I learned the basics of American history and never felt any strong connection to it (except colonial history, but that's a different story). Reading this story about a brave young black girl going into a school filled with antagonistic white high school students to draw an end to the era of segregation was powerful, and painful. It really connected me to the plight of African-Americans, and encouraged me to learn about and support their rights aka #blacklivesmatter.

Tales of Ancient Egypt · Roger Lancelyn Green
Goodreads

Due to movies like The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, Egypt has always held a mystical appeal to me. My copy of this book is so worn down that the paperback is practically crumbling to pieces. I love the stories of all their gods. That led me into doing a lot of historical research about the history of Egypt while focusing during the time of the pharaohs. I've learned some fascinating and mildly creepy things.

Stephanie Plum · Janet Evanovich
Goodreads

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE IS DELICIOUS. Stephanie Plum obsesses about food constantly, but her favorite by far is the pineapple upside down cake. This usually leads to intense cravings for me. I had never had Pineapple Upside Down cake before. So I gave it a go and baked it. And now it is one of our regular family cakes.

Ellen's Picks (Only 5 This Week)

Anna and the French Kiss · Stephanie Perkins

When I first read this book, I got bitten really hard with this desire to travel. Stephanie Perkins does an amazing job of describing foreign locales and it made me want to go exploring far-off places.  I traveled abroad a lot as a kid and young adult with my family, but I was always quite anxious about it. I'm a nervous person, and resistant to change, so traveling could be really overwhelming. But in Anna and the French Kiss, we see a character, Anna, be really nervous about being a foreigner and exploring places, but then she grows to love it. I was inspired to break out of my box and go travel as well. So when I was 24, I decided that I'd use my money I earned from nannying and fly to England to visit my Aunt who was living in East Sussex at the time in a mouldering old house by the sea. So I booked a flight to Heathrow and just... went!

Bloody Jack · L.A. Meyer

This little-known series is incredible. I love it so much, and it got me obsessed with nautical history, especially during the Napoleonic wars.  I've watched Master and Commander: Far Side of the World more times than I care to admit, and all because of this series. I also really want to go on a boat trip across the Atlantic one day! Safely, but I want to see the incredible storms.

Mr. Revere and I • Robert Lawson

This, my favorite childhood book, made me beg my parents for horse riding lessons. I was utter crap at it, though. I'm scared of horses to this day. It's ironic, because my dad was a show rider and is totally nonchalant about horses. He says they're just like dogs. BUT I THINK THEY'RE TERRIFYING!

The Search for Delicious · Natalie Babbitt

Like many readers, I'm a huge word nerd. I think my love of reading was partially inspired by this book, The Search for Delicious, which features a pageboy going on a royal mission to poll people about a contentious dictionary entry. It also has a mermaid in it, and I love mermaids. Seriously, the amount of mermaid memorabilia and general mermaid crap I own is ridiculous.

Unidentified Children's Book 

My last entry for this week's TTT is about a book that I don't remember the title of. It was a children's picture book that I got from the library when I was pretty little.  It was about a little Inuit girl who went on an adventure, away from her parents for a day, with her little brother in tow.  Very important detail: their mother packed them whale skin to eat as a snack.  That REALLY resonated with me. So much so that my overactive imagination took over and I asked my Grandmother Harriet, when she gave me a piece of deli turkey one day, "Is this whale skin?" She thought it was hilarious and told everybody. It became a family joke and carried on for years, with me and my mom and grandma calling deli turkey, "whale skin." So yeah, a little weird, but it's a fond memory.

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Ellen: That's it for this week! I'm only doing five entries this week because I got to this TTT a little late and I want to spend my remaining awake hours tonight reading Broken Prince whilst messaging Sierra. But this week was a great topic! Let us know how reading affects your life in the comments below! I'd love to hear any stories you have about being inspired through books!