Things that books made me curious about

Reading is such a great hobby. I love it. I have been reading from a young age on and I don’t intend to stop. Ever. The great thing about books is that they open up a whole new world and show you a dozen things you never knew. There are so many things that reading has shown me and most of them I might have forgotten after closing the book but some of them – some of them have stirred a hunger in me to know more, to learn more about this particular subject. And here they are: The things that books made me overly curious about.

Chess

Let me tell you about my relationship with the game Chess.
When I was a small kid we’ve had this electronic chess board. It was rather rudimentary and you could either play against another player or you could play against the computer. The computer was weird since it seemed to be only programmed with one kind of strategy and didn’t always seem to obey the rules of chess. Mean.
The only other person that would agree to play chess with me was my older brother who was similarly mean because he wouldn’t let me undo any moves when I saw one of his pieces too late and he captured mine, the fiend. Needless to say, that small-me was soon becoming desinterested because she always lost.

To properly learn chess had been on my mind on and off over the years but not as much as you would have thought. But lately I have been thinking about it more, ever since I’ve finished “Small Spaces” and “Dead Voices“. (I would lie, if I said, that the giant chess board of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has absolutely nothing to do with it. I mean, pieces that move on their own and even give advice and stuff? Score!)

I like the idea of chess. I like the tactics of it and the feeling of outsmarting the other player. I like the elegance of it.
That’s why I have started to learn more about chess. I already made a pact with my brother that we would play when I’m up to speed. I will totally wipe the board with him. I mean, he only has twenty years of experience on me. How hard could it be? 😉

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Korean culture

I think what interests me the most about Korean culture is the writing. I have looked it up, at least a little bit and I think it’s really, really interesting how the characters are formed and how it all fits together to make words and sentences.

There is also some interesting folklore and mythology going on. It’s just something I like to read and research from time to time and all thanks to a book. And hey, if you know something about Korean culture you wanna share with me, don’t hesitate to come and ramble to me about it.

Mythology

I will never get over Percy Jackson. Those books are everything to me. I have so many good memories that come with those books and I will never stop loving them.
Funnily enough, when the first book came out, I also started taking Latin lessons in school. There was a lot of historical and mythical texts that we had to translate and after reading Percy Jackson, I felt much smarter and more well-versed in that subject than everybody else. Obviously.

Regardless if I actually did know more about this topic just from reading one book, I still stayed fascinated with the topic. So much that I did a lot of research and even chose Greek mythology as my topic for my 30 page essay that went into my A levels. And while Greek Mythology will forever by my secret love, I love getting to know other mythologies, their weird gods and goddesses, stories about heroes, monsters and whatever crawls and flies.

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Animals

It sounds weird but books have made me interested in animals. Bats and Owls to be exact.

The obsession with bats comes probably from Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing, a book that I got for a very good reportcard when I was a kid. I fell in love with Shade and Marina and the mystery of the bands and their journey. I have researched and learned so much about those interesting animals, from their anatomy to their senses and habits. When my mum nursed a small injured bat back to health a few years ago, I was utterly delighted. Vladimir was totally healthy and rejoined his colony btw. (Also, if you find an injured bat, leave it be. They unfortunately carry a lot of diseased and you should never touch any bats without gloves. And this is your PSA for the week.)

For my love of owls I might blame Harry Potter again but also The Owls of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky. I read that series to my sisters and did so much research on owls afterwards. Seriously. I mean, birds are fascinating by themselves but owls? Owls are amazing. The silent flight, the hearing, the vision – they are utterly fascinating. At this point, you can literally ask me anything about them.

Other books

In a time where you get most of your recommendations from purchasing websites or Social Media or other blogs, it’s maybe a little strange, that I become intersted in other books by reading books.

Well, let me explain.

What is it that a booklover lovers most in the world? Books. And what is even better than books. Books about books, naturally! And while books about books almost always come with the fictional bookworm’s favourite books, there are always books that I have not read yet and that I definitely want to take a closer look later. The newest book I found in a book is “Anne of Green Gables”. I liked the depiction of a fictional bookworm reading the book so much, that I ultimately decided to buy it. Can’t wait to read it too. 🙂

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What about you? Have you ever read about some or other topic in a book that made you wanna try it out yourself?