This is somewhat similar to the “Rate The Awesomeness…” thread, but it’s more of a thought-experiment: imagine a genie, djinn, or other powerful supernatural creature appeared before you, and for whatever reason this being told you that you could only participate in one of your current hobbies for the rest of your life. (“Hobby” is defined for the purposes of this thought-experiment as “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation”; assume that things like “spending time with family,” “attending church,” or “casually watching a TV show or a movie from time to time” don’t count as a hobby and therefore would still be allowed.) Which of your hobbies would you choose?
Then imagine that this apparition said “okay, I’ll be generous - you get TWO hobbies.” Which two would you go with?
Then imagine that this creature said “okay, okay, you’ve convinced me. THREE hobbies.” And so on down the line. For me, my hobby ranking (one through ten, although you can certainly rank more or fewer as you like) would be as follows:
-
Reading. If I had to give up everything else, I would keep reading. Outside of my family and my faith, reading (classic literature, contemporary literature, non-fiction, science-fiction, fantasy…) is the most important thing in my life, and I don’t think I would want to live in a world in which I couldn’t read for leisure.
-
Music. This might be kind of weird to describe as a hobby (especially given that I don’t play an instrument) but by “Music” I don’t mean just listening to some random radio station as I drive; I mean actively seeking out new bands, reading reviews, and ranking my favorite albums of any given year (I’m big on ranking, in case you couldn’t tell). A world in which I couldn’t do that would be a sad world indeed.
-
Exercise. This one’s kind of a cheater, because there are several different categories of exercise that I participate in, each of which one could argue merits its own ranking. But it’s my thought-experiment, so I’ll allow it. Aside from reading and music, the next thing I wouldn’t want to live without would be running, weight-lifting, interval training, etc.
-
Board games. By this I really mean European Strategy Board Games. I got bit hard by the board game bug back in 2004, and although my interest has waxed and waned, it’s always been among my top five hobbies. It doesn’t hurt that a lot of socializing with my group of friends is centered around board games, and almost every Saturday will find us playing a game of Dominion, or Race for the Galaxy, or Puerto Rico, or Agricola, or Princes of Florence, or Le Havre, or Small World, etc.
-
Video games. I don’t know what I need to say about video games - you all know what video games are, and you either appreciate them or you don’t. There was a time in my life when they would have been much higher on this list (probably number two), but there are still usually about four or five releases a year that capture my interest sufficiently to merit a place in the top five.
-
Yoyos. Kind of surprising given how into yoyos I’ve gotten that it’s only number six. That said, a little more than two months ago I wouldn’t have even thought to put yoyos on this list, period, so number six ain’t bad.
-
Snowboarding.
-
Stand up paddle boarding.
-
Hiking.
-
Wake surfing.
(You can tell at that point I got a little tired typing out a blurb for each one.)
Well guys, what are YOUR hobby rankings?
