Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want to Learn/Do.
The Possible
Falconry. Between medieval and Renaissance fiction, Mercedes Lackey’s Hawkbrothers, and Nora Roberts’ Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy, I’ve developed an interest in hawks and falconry (hunting with hawks and falcons.) I’m not prepared to take on the commitment of owning a hawk or falcon, but I would enjoy a guided hawk-walk sometime.
Waltz. All those historical romances have left me wanting to learn to waltz well, rather than the very basic version I know (and don’t do very well.) I wouldn’t mind learning a few other dances from the 19th century, either, like the cotillion.
Go to the races. Horse races, that is. Steeplechase, by preference, and in England if possible. Yeah, you can blame this one on Dick Francis, most of whose mysteries involve racing and/or horses in one way or another.
Travel. I consider myself very fortunate to have traveled as much as I have. I’ve been to England, Scotland, and Wales several times (though I’d love to go back!), to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, to the Canadian Rockies, to Mexico, and to a fair number of U.S. states. But there are so many places I’ve read about that I’d like to visit: Greece (especially Crete and Corfu); Italy (Venice, Florence); the Swiss and Austrian Alps and Salzburg; Bavaria’s Black Forest; New Zealand; The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway; China and/or Japan; Alaska; the Sierra Nevadas; Olympia National Park in Washington state. I’d also like to drive the West Coast from San Francisco to Seattle. Every single one of those destinations comes from at least one book I’ve read; some come from several.
Go on a cruise. River cruise, Alaska cruise… Some of the books I’ve read have really made me want to try a cruise. Not the big, Princess Line-style Caribbean cruises so much as the smaller ones where you get to know your fellow passengers, and preferably one with great scenery.
Solve a mystery. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or killed in real life. But I’ve always thought it would be fun to solve a mystery. I’m putting this in the “possible” category because I could go to one of those mystery dinners or games, where you solve a fake mystery. Obviously, the impetus for this wish begins with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and carries right through the present day via all the mystery series I’ve read and loved.
The Unlikely
Be a spy. Thank you, Mrs. Pollifax, for putting this one in my head! To be honest, I don’t think I would enjoy it in real life — living a lie, acting all the time, never being able to talk about what you do (not to mention the constant fear of being caught and/or killed.) It sounds a lot more fun and interesting in fiction.
The Impossible
Travel to other planets. OK, this owes as much to Star Trek as to Heinlein, Asimov, et al…but it does date back to my childhood reading Heinlein’s juvenile SF. It’s in the “impossible” category because I couldn’t qualify as an astronaut if I tried.
Ride a dragon. Thanks to Anne McCaffrey for this one!
Go to Hogwarts. The “real” (i.e., fictional) one, not the one in Florida. To learn magic, of course.
Visit Narnia. And Middle Earth. Because really, who wouldn’t want to?
Be Chosen to be a Herald of Valdemar. Another impossible dream. [sigh]
What about you? What secret dreams do you have as a result of reading?
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Lianne @ eclectictales.com
Yay for having been to PEI! It’s such a charming province 🙂 But yes, books set in Europe definitely leaves me hankering to just pop on over there on the next flight, lol (Austria is *le sigh* and Salzburg is just lovely). Great list 🙂
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Lark_Bookwyrm
My mom and stepdad have taken a couple of river cruises in Europe. They sound lovely, but I want mountains. And historic old cities, of course; those I could get on a river cruise.
Rita @ View From My Books
Fun list! We would love to travel internationally (only been to Canada besides many U.S. states, but son went to Austria, Germany, Ireland, Canada and Mexcio so he is doing what we want to), and I would love to meet a real dragon, unlikely though 🙂 and visit Rivendell, oh if I could, but instead I will pick something a bit more realistic and say Machu Picchu.
Thanks for a fun list that had me thinking.
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Lark_Bookwyrm
Machu Pichu would be amazing; my dad and stepmother went there and they loved it. I hope you get to do some traveling, Rita!
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library
I love this list! I would love to learn how to waltz! I think I’d be awful at it because dancing is not on my list of things I’m good at but I’d love to really understand all the intricacies of it. You can have my share of falconry. Birds make me nervous.
Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Things Books Have Made Me Want to Do or Learn About
Lark_Bookwyrm
I took a few years of ballet as a child, and a little bit of modern dance in high school and college, but I’m not much of a dancer these days… but I wish I were!
Lark
Yeah, books have made me want to travel, too; both to real places, and fictional ones. If only Hogwarts were real!! Great post. 🙂
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Lark_Bookwyrm
I would dearly love to go to Hogwarts! Think they’d take a 50-something student?
Stephanie
Great List! Jinx on Being a Spy inspired by Mrs. Pollifax:). I would also really like to learn to waltz and really all the Regency Era dances as well. I wish we still had balls. Sigh….
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Lark_Bookwyrm
There are still balls, but I’m not likely to get invited to one, as they are mostly either very high society, or presidential inaugural balls! But yes, it would be such fun… though at my age, I don’t suppose anyone would be vying for a place on my dance card. 🙂
Lindsay
I would like to travel to all of those places! Travel was the top item on my list this week. I have no interest in a big giant cruise-ship type cruise, but “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” pushed Antarctica cruise up to the top of my bucket list! As a bonus, the cruises usually leave from Chile, so I could cross South America off my bucket list at the same time!
I’m terrible at modern-day dancing, but I have a feeling I would be good at the old-fashioned ones!
Lindsay recently posted…10 Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do
Lark_Bookwyrm
I’m with you; I’m not interested in a Caribbean cruise, but I’d love an Alaska cruise, or a European river cruise. Antarctica cruises scare me a bit, though; the boats are smaller and the seas are pretty rough, and I’m not sure I’m up for that. But oh, to see emperor penguins in their natural habitat!