What is your Hobby?

By Christina VanGinkel

Do you suddenly feel like everybody you know, friends, family, co-workers, all have a hobby, but you do not? Maybe you have not got a clue what you want to do beyond the fact that you do want to do something besides the nothing that you take part in now. Or, maybe you have narrowed it down a bit, such as you love all the papers that all your friends use in their scrapbooks, and would love to make something with the paper, but 'not' a scrapbook.

Ask yourself a few questions to help define you define if you already have a hobby that you just have not taken the time to define, or if you really need to try something new. Did you have a favorite pastime, and if so, why did you stop participating in it? Was it money issues, or did you get bored with it, or was there possibly some other reason you quit? If it was a money issue, is there some way now for you to work it into your budget now, or to participate in it in a manner that is not so costly? Have you always dreamed of trying something, but did not know how to go about it, figuring you would at the least need to take a class, or find a mentor to give you basic instructions? With the Internet so widely available, maybe now is the time to search out a class or mentor! Have you seemingly tried it all, and just never felt the drive to claim a hobby as your own? Maybe trying new things is your hobby! Only you can define whether a hobby is worthy of it being your 'thing' to do. When you do discover something that you enjoy, consider sharing your newfound joy by introducing it to someone else who is in search of the hobby of his or her dreams, but just cannot seem to find something to call their own.

To help get you on the road to a happy, hobby-filled existence, I have gathered a list of magazines for you to peruse, in hopes that one of them might be just the thing to point you in the direction of a hobby you will love. Some of them are what may be referred to as typical hobby magazines, while others might be a bit of a stretch, but keep in mind that hobbies come in all different shapes and sizes.

If you love animals, try:

Aquarium Fish, Bird Talk, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Freshwater and Marine Aquarium, Modern Dog, Horse Illustrated, Ferrets, Bird Watcher's Digest, Reptiles, Bird Talk, Cat Fancy

If you have a love of all things paper, check out these:

Card Maker, Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, Paper Crafts, Paper Works, Simple Scrapbooks, Scrapbook Answers (I highly recommend the version with the included disc!)

Think wood might be more your style, then consider these:

Woodworker's Journal, Woodworking for Women, Wood Digest, Wood Carving Illustrated, Wood, American Woodworker

Some people are inspired by the outdoors, but have not got a clue what to do:

Outdoor Photography, Hobby Farms, Hooked on the Outdoors, Rock & Gem, Wildfowl Carving Magazine, Golf Digest

Magazines devoted to a wide range of various handcrafts:

Annie's Plastic Canvas, Bead Style, Creative knitting, Crochet World, Crochet, Hooked on Crochet, Fiber Arts, Jewelry Crafts, McCall's Quilting, Rug Hooking, Threads, Tole World

Are you the more daring kind? Then consider these:

Shark Diver, SPEEDWORLD Magazine, Skateboarder, Street Rodder, Paintball 2 Xtremes, Kit Planes, Ocean Navigator, Flight Journal, Flying, FREESKIER, Whitetail Fanatic

If quiet pursuits are defiantly more your calling card, then give some of these a once over:

American Songwriter, Classic Toy Trains, Coinage, Coins, Comic Buyer's Guide, Crossword Puzzles, Fine Scale Modeler, Official Variety and Puzzle Word Games, Paint Works, Search n Circle, Swap Meet, World Coin News, Watercolor Magic

Looking over these, I realize that they are just a small representation of what hobbies exist. There are so many choices for people to delve through, from skydiving to tending a Koi garden, riding horses, to shopping, cooking, joining a club that reenacts historical adventures, and many other things. The basic definition of a hobby is a task that helps you relax, that you take pleasure in, but is something other than your normal, daily activities. We should all have the pleasure!