These week’s topic over at ThatArtsyReaderGirl for Top Ten Tuesday is “Weird or Funny Things I’ve Googled Thanks to a Book” (submitted by by Astilbe at Long and Short Reviews). While I am not sure how much of it is weird or funny, there are certainly many things I have researched or looked into because of reading. Many of these are finds that were like a springboard into a new world, literally!

Initially, I thought it might be tough using this theme but I recalled a quirky website from a book I read years ago. That led me to remember that i have a whole A-Z series of posts of things within books. So reusing some of that content today!! But first

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What is a Springboard?

Per dictionary definition, apart from the obvious physical springboard divers use, it is anything that lends impetus or assistance to a particular action, enterprise, or development.

Those Little Springboards of Knowledge!

Have you ever read something in a book that made you want to learn more? I think of those finds within books that often send me on a wild-goose chase, down a rabbit hole of research, or other such paths as catalysts. Each one like a little springboard of knowledge.

They could be fun, quirky things, or more serious ones too. Regardless, the end result is the same. I learn something new.

So, next time you’re reading, pay attention to those moments that make you go, “Huh, I wonder what that’s all about?” You never know where that springboard might take you!

Ten Bookish Finds that Opened New Worlds

Anne of Green Gables

So many things from this book that I will put one thing here and link my post for Anne for you to take a look at everything else within. And I have to tell you that Anne of Green Gables took me down many rabbit holes!!

One of the things that I ended up looking for (not weird or funny, but kind of cool though). This mention of a song led me to checking if it was real, and if I could hear it.

“Diana is going to teach me to sing a song called ‘Nelly in the Hazel Dell.’”

 The song mentioned here was a popular song by George Frederick Root in 1853, also known simply as ‘The Hazel Dell’. You can read the full song here and listen to it in the youtube video below:

Note: If you have not read the book, or if you love the book a lot, you should check out the graphic novel version of this book. I totally loved it.

The Bookshop Girl

This cute read – The Bookshop Girl by Sylvia Bishop –

One fun fact (among other things) I learned is that:

• we cannot say the word “book” when we are smiling

Weird, cool, fun – all in one, right? And you can check it out for yourselves. This led me to looking for the reasons why. And then to more such words impacted by what we are doing with our facial muscles!!

Check out my complete thoughts on the book as well as more truths learned from it in this earlier review post.

(Juvenile Fiction for 7 – 12 years, and up / Family / Adoption )

Note: this image below is not from the book, but kind of to give you an idea of the themed rooms within the bookshop! This could have been the ‘room of clouds’ or something more original than that name I came up with.

The Children of Cherry Tree Farm

I went on a treasure hunt of nature facts with Blyton’s The Children of Cherry Tree Farm. You can check for the ones I have noted down in my post about the book but here is one line below:

Sometimes squirrels use old nests made by birds..

When I googled this, I learned that some squirrels are secondary-cavity nesters. That is – like some bird species (bluebird, koels) – they use an abandoned cavity/nest previously made by other birds.

Get the book here.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

I first found out about Mary Anning from this book. And also about Isabella Bird and Sofia Kovalevskaya plus other women scientists! I learned more fun facts about the natural world. And I had to check who or what was the esquimax. For the rest, you can read my post here and read the book for yourselves too. I love this series!

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

So much to love and learn within this Rushdie book for children! For example, one random thing:

Koshmar (Russian: Кошмар, lit. as Nightmare), also known as Nightmare Gulag^[1], is a prison located in Moscow. According to Anatoly Knyazev, it is the worst prison in Russia. This word also finds its way into CW’s super hero TV series – ‘Arrow’!

I talk about what I discovered within this book here and here too; and my review post is here.

Kidnapped

A look at how and why Stevenson wrote Kidnapped is fascinating. So in this case, it was reading a bit about the inspiration for this book that led me to a search engine.

I learned about Allan Breck Stewart, for one. You can read the book online or if you are a Kindle user, then this Kindle edition is for you.

The Little Bookshop of Love Stories

I learned many words (including quiff) and went looking for cookie recipes as well. In addition to that, I added many books to my TBR (the ones mentioned within this book!).

Check out my complete review here and/or get The Little Bookshop of Love Stories for yourselves.

Treasure Island

Reading the epigraph and the preface of Treasure Island meant I learned about this periodical called The Idler. Here is my original post about the book.

Xingu

A world of books within this book that took me on any reading tangents and that made me take longer to read this short book than it should have taken. One example: ‘The Data of Ethics‘

Then the rest

Many of these were things that I looked for were fictional but I just wanted to find out if there was something close to them, or any elements of truth that they were connected to by searching for them.

• Looking for websites mentioned in books to see if they might perchance be real (Though I know they are not sometimes). Like the one I mentioned at the start of the post (this one is from Looking for Bapu where the protagonist researches websites like http://www.bring-back-dead-loved-ones.com)
• Many things in the book Mr.Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore led me to googling for stuff. Though I cannot recall the specifics now.
• There is more but like all things, this post (or this section) has to end somewhere.

Springboards of Creativity

Like those things within books (and podcasts and movies and more) can lead you to learning more, they can each also be a creative springboard. As can be prompts created/given for that specific reason.

Prompts offer a starting point, encouraging artists to think innovatively, and explore new ideas. By providing a framework for creation, prompts act like that springboard I mentioned. They inspire originality and push boundaries. They also foster collaboration and community among creators. In essence, prompts are catalysts – aka springboards – that ignite the spark of imagination, leading to endless possibilities.

Why am I talking about springboards of creativity? To lead into my next part of this post, poems for dVersePoets quadrille and Poetics prompts for this week.

Finding a Springboard in Slumber for Quadrille #196

The challenge is to write a quadrille of exactly forty four words including the word “Slumber” or any variation of it but please, do not interchange it with “sleep”.

(S)Lumber

Last night I caught a movement
By the corner of my eye (of course)
A slow blurry one
jolting me off-course
Pausing, I turned so I’d see
Who that stranger in my house could be
Turns out, ‘twas plain old zombie-d me
Lumbering slumberingly!

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

A “Young” Springboard

This week’s dVerse Poetics prompt is to write a poem on being “young and green” from whatever persona or viewpoint you choose to adopt. Read more details and inspiration for the prompt at dVerse.

My Personal Springboard (or Inspiration)

So I attended a writing class a few years ago at the local community college, just because. One of the assignments was to write a narrative essay about a person from our childhood who had a deep impact on us.

I picked Dr. T. V. K. Rao, a retired doctor who would volunteer his time and teach us high-schoolers about various things. He also organized social service events where we could help the locals in the villages around our little town in many ways. Dr. Rao was old (ancient in fact at his age of late 60s to my then 13-year old self). He was tiny (literally – at around 5 feet in height and frail as well).

However, as I got to know him through his visits to our school over the next few years, I realized that age is just a number, and no matter how old you are, inside, you can be as young as you want. Like Sandra Cisneros says in her story ‘Eleven’, “the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one.” 

Today’s poem is inspired by him and based on my narrative essay from a few years ago.

The Poem

Age-Less
In him, age – it blurred its lines,
lessons transcended time’s confines.
His wisdom, a tapestry of years (and years and years),
Yet his spirit seemed to dance with youthful cheers.

Then it struck me, suddenly I knew
That those ancient words are indeed true,
A reminder that age is but a hue.

At thirteen, when I was so very young and green
I yearned for his cool “sage art,”
To age as he did, wise yet young at heart.
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, have you read any of the listed books? What have you researched or googled about because you read it in a book/article/elsewhere, or saw it in a movie/TV show, or heard about it somewhere too?