It’s time for my very first Top Ten Tuesday, which is a weekly event created by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is books that make you want to do or learn something.

1. The first would have to be The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
because it first made me want to learn how to drive a stick. And then, I realized that I also wanted to do illegal street racing with the aforementioned stick. Kidding. (Note: this book isn’t out yet, I got it as an ARC. Definitely recommend when it comes out in October!)

2. Next comes Marie Rutkoski’s The Winner’s Curse. The main character, Kestrel, has a passion for piano. This, combined with the anime “Your Lie in April” made me want to actually practice my music.

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone  by Laini Taylor made me want to dye my hair blue. Karou’s colored hair was seriously awesome to me, and the idea is still appealing.

4. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater made me want to learn Latin. Plus, it would be useful for English vocabulary. Root words! Yay!

“He cared for languages dead long enough that they wouldn’t change on him”

5. Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without a mention to one of my favorite series of all time: Throne of Glass by the lovely Sarah J Maas. It will probably be on all future Top Tens. This one made me want to learn fancy knife tricks–though not necessarily to assassinate people.

6. I’m not much of an Outlander girl. Instead, my desire to visit Scotland is inspired by Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon. Holy Hammerstein, I loved that book!

7. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) led me to want to watch classic movies and listen to 80s’, which I do a lot with my mom anyway. Wade’s love of pop culture was truly inspiring and slightly obsessive.

8. Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows was the beginning of my lock smithing career. I sat down for at least 30 minutes with Wikihow open, trying to pick a lock. Kaz makes it sound so easy :(. I couldn’t do it. RIP Book Societea Lock Smithery.

9. One of my school summer reading assignments,  Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, was a good motivator for my classics agenda. The characters read a lot of western literature, and it changes their lives in many ways. It made me realize that I wanted to expose myself to a wider range of reading and culture.

10. Because of Charlie Holmberg’s The Paper Magician, I went on a week-long origami spew. The book was okay, but for some reason I really felt the urge to fold paper. It was strange and I wasn’t very good so I quit.

Thank you all so much for reading! Comment some of your top tens of this category.

Until next time,