Recently I was asked what my hobbies were and I’ll admit that I didn’t have an answer readily available.
Mostly because this question came from someone I’ve known for a few years and partially because my hobbies aren’t things that are usually defined as such by others.
And that’s what’s hard to explain to folks.
I think my biggest hobbies are reading, writing, playing video games, and watching movies.
Sure, I get to review movies for the newspaper, but outside of that,
I’m always watching something – even if it’s just to have background noise while I read or spend some time texting my friends.
Though I guess by that definition, I’m not watching something actively, but I’m technically listening at that point.
But, I do find myself occasionally glancing up at the screen when the film gets interesting.
Sometimes, I also watch an older film that’s become gleefully predictable so I’ll look up to see my favorite parts, too.
Still, reading and writing go hand in hand and I know that those aren’t hobbies for everyone either!
In fact, some of my friends have said that I have “old lady” hobbies and all I can do is shrug to that comment.
Sure, I could do something that’s probably a bit more active, but that lends itself to also being more expensive.
Plus, I’m not too terribly fond of “trends” and how quickly they fade or fall out of favor.
I mean, the worst part of that is when something drops out of the sphere of popularity or businesses and companies go out of business and I’m hovering in a state of perpetually dwindling supplies and opportunities to enjoy said hobby.
The flip side to that is that something becomes so popular that it gets priced out of my purchasing bracket and I can only admire it from afar anyway.
However, books aren’t like that at all and I’m still able to get my hands on physical copies instead of dealing with digital-only downloads.
After all, I’ve been an avid reader since the third grade and tend to soak up each and every book I can get my hands on in my favorite genre.
Even then there are some notable flagship series in my favorite genres, I tend to avoid them until the series is complete or the hype has abated.
Most of all I honestly hate reading one book and being left with a cliffhanger and having to wait for the next release to further the story along.
We’re not even going to mention the series that will never be completed because the author died or moved on to something else – or in the case of some authors – won’t finish their stories!
Outside of that, I’m only limited by what mom tells me we have space for in the house, but, that’s the beauty of having a library card and a vast array of resources available online!
It’s always especially entertaining when some literature enters the public use database and is free game for adaptations and being used to inspire other writers.
The only other drawback to my “old lady” hobbies is finding the time to do them with my main full-time jobs – news editor and anything else assigned by mom!
