Get a Hobby! Book Review
There’s a new book out there for grown-ups that at first glance reminds me of The Dangerous Book For Boys. It’s got a short introduction and two-page overviews of over a hundred fun activities or hobbies to explore. It sounded like a real kick, and I was excited to take a look when the Parent Bloggers Network asked me to review this book.
Get a Hobby! 101 All-Consuming Diversions for Any Lifestyle does what it advertises, which is to present short blurbs on a wide variety of activities. From composting to stargazing to seed trading, if it’s interesting and it’s a hobby, it’s probably in there. The book is an interesting browse, and it really is amazing to see the bredth of activities that adults occupy themselves with. Get a Hobby! is such a wide-ranging book, however, that it doesn’t have room to present more than a paragraph about each hobby, a bit of history, a short list of websites and other resources, and maybe a diagram or interview with a hobbyist for each activity.
The book begins with a 1 page forward, 1 page introduction, and a 19 question test. I was really interested in the test, thinking maybe I’d find a new interest based on the 19-dimension classification system that the book uses. Unfortunately, the test is 1-dimensional. Each question is in essence a filter for whether or not that attribute (”adventurous,” “crafty,” “patient”) applies to the reader. The end result is a list of adjectives. Then each new activity is introduced with the highlighted adjectives at the top of the page. I would have really liked an index that sent me to the ones that were a good match … maybe an accompanying web site will spring up that will use the set of selected adjectives to send the reader directly to suggested activities?
Get a Hobby! is a book that means well, but it may just be a book for a different audience — say, people with more time on their hands than ideas they’d like to implement. Want to see for yourself? Go visit PBN and leave a comment on their launch or mid-campaign posts, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a copy of the book and a $100 gift certificate to Michael’s!
P.S. I almost totally forgot. Note to authors: Astrology is not a hobby; it’s a lie.
Posted by Monica on May 31, 2007 at 9:54 pm
re: Astrology–I thought that exactly thing when I read the little section about Tarot card reading. Isn’t that supposed to be a skill you are born with (supposedly), not something you can learn after reading a few paragraphs??
Posted by whymommy on May 31, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Actually, star charting (the part of astrology that ends with sayings like “your chakra is in the red house with Venus rising” — wait, that’s not right) you can learn. We actually DID learn star charting in my Astronomy 101 course, years and years ago, as a lab activity. I’m still not sure why, but it was an amazingly intricate procedure, and the result is a graphical representation of where all the planets were at the exact time of your birth. I kept mine. Not for the astrological value of course, but cause I really liked knowing where the planets were!
The activity made me wonder why anyone who would/could go to all that trouble wouldn’t be fascinated by the REST of science.
Tarot cards, though? No idea. How is it different from Eucher?
Posted by mothergoosemouse on June 4, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Kyle and I are cackling our heads off about the astrology business. Right on!
Posted by The Parent Bloggers Network » Get a Hobby! - Here’s What They’re Saying So Far on June 5, 2007 at 11:01 am
[...] You can either start leafing through the list, or take the Hobby Personality Quiz to get an idea of which hobby traits fit you best. The problem a few reviewers found is that “the book does not go the next step needed to spoon-feed me my dream hobby by cross-referencing my traits to the hobbies.” Another blogger echoed this comment and made a novel suggestion (Ms. Barseghian, are you listening?): “I would have really liked an index that sent me to the ones that were a good match … maybe … [...]