But ever since I got to grad school and then went out into the working world, I've never really had a hobby. Life tended to keep me busy enough. It's not that I haven't tried. I took a class in woodcarving once and enjoyed it. I learned about different types of knives and chisels, I learned how to sharpen blades. But after carving a few small things (including a couple of very strange looking Santa Claus') I just kind of fell away from it.
Another time I bought a couple of books on furniture making and proceeded to make a couple of tables and bookcases. I enjoyed the mental and physical effort, the design problem, and had quite a bit of satisfaction when the pieces were done, however imperfectly. But again, after a few starts I kind of let things lapse.
Part of my problem, I think, is that in order to become good at a hobby that involves actually making something you've got to be very persistent. You've got to keep working at it, making new things and learning from each of your mistakes. It takes a long time to become good at your hobby. And I've never been that interested in the things I've taken up. Like a dilettante, I've always wanted to learn a little about a lot of things, but most of the time a little is quite enough. Also, I have a number of things that keep me busy around the house, yard work, small maintenance jobs, reading, movies I've put off watching.
So maybe taking up a new hobby isn't in the cards.
Or, maybe I already have a hobby.
If one thinks of a hobby as "an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure" then I've already got one - writing. (This isn't my idea, BTW. My wife said this very thing when I was whining about not having a hobby.)
I do research for my books, which I find enjoyable. Lots of times the research is done at my computer, but I occasionally have to travel to find materials. I get to correspond with others who do the same kind of research (these days it's in the history of cryptology). I like the process of organizing my research and turning it into prose that others might read. I even like the process of laying out and editing my work in preparation for sending it off to a publisher (or publishing it myself as I've done once). Because I don't depend on my writing as a steady source of income, nearly all of my projects can proceed at whatever pace I find comfortable. And I can put them down for a while to do something else, or go on a trip, or whatever, and then pick them up again when I want to. If that's not a definition of a hobby, I'm not sure what is.
So I think I already have a hobby, one that will provide many, many hours of pleasure over the coming years. So now I can stop worrying about finding a new one.
