Hobby

A hobby is a spare-time pursuit (see recreation), practiced for interest and enjoyment, rather than as paid work. Examples include collecting, making, tinkering, sports and adult education. Engaging in a hobby can lead to acquiring substantial skill, knowledge, and experience. But personal fulfillment is the aim.

What are hobbies for some people are professions for others: a computer game tester may enjoy cooking as a hobby, while a professional chef might enjoy playing (and helping to debug) computer games. Generally speaking, the person who does something for fun, not remuneration, is called an amateur (or hobbyist), as distinct from professional.

An important determinant of what is considered a hobby, as distinct from a profession, is probably how easy it is to make a living at the activity. Almost no one can make a living at stamp collecting, but many people find it enjoyable; so it is commonly regarded as a hobby.

While some hobbies strike most people as trivial and boring, the hobbyist has found something compelling and entertaining about them. Much early scientific research was, in effect, a hobby of the wealthy; in our own time, Linux began as a student's hobby.

Pursuit of a hobby often has calming or helpful thereputic side effects.

Hobbies include:

• Automotive
  • [Antique]
  • [Trucks]
  • [Motorcycles]
• Collecting
  • Antique Collecting
  • Art Collecting
  • Book collecting
  • Bottle collecting
  • Card collecting
  • Coin collecting (Numismatics)
  • Stamp collecting (Philately)
  • Comic book collecting
  • Currency collecting
  • Dog Breeding?
  • Doll collecting
  • Home-computers collecting
  • Miniature collecting
  • Phone-card collecting
  • Thimble collecting
  • Character collecting, such as anything Elvis, or everything Mickey Mouse
  • Automobile license plate collecting, only possible in places where the plates are not government property.
  • Souvenir spoon collecting
  • Weapon collecting
    • firearms
    • knifes
  • Tourist postcard collecting (different from philately)
  • this list needs to be continued!
• Gardening
• Cooking
• Genealogy
• Historical Reenacting
• Music-making
  • Musical composition
  • MIDI compostion
• Model-building
  • Model airplanes
  • Model cars
  • Model houses
  • Model ships
  • Model trains
  • Model rockets
  • Flying Kites
• Sports
• Computer programming
  • Linux
  • Open source
  • Free software movement
• Electronics
• Amateur Astronomy
• Amateur Radio
• Games
  • Miniature wargaming
  • Wargaming
  • Role-playing games
  • Jigsaw puzzle
  • Crossword puzzle
• Observation
  • Birdwatching
  • Butterfly watching
  • Trainspotting
• Adding stuff to Wikipedia
• Walking
• Arts and Crafts
  • Beadwork
  • Bookbinding
  • Breeding animals
  • Ceramics
  • Cross-stitch
  • Crocheting
  • Drawing
  • Embroidery
  • Knitting
  • Macrame
  • Needlepoint
  • Quilting
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Pottery
  • Sculpture
  • Sewing
  • Spinning
  • Tatting
  • Weaving
  • Woodworking

Please add to this list!!

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What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics about hobbies, please see hobby basic topics.