I need a new hobby. Any suggestions?

Climbing, depending on your location. I taught myself how to cook, just by playing around till I made some tasty stuff. I also read quite a bit. What are some other things you are into, your level of fittness, and where abouts are you living?

If you have a digital camera you can start taking pictures while you are out on your bike rides.

Yeah man, honestly, climbing, rock climbing. If there’s a climbing gym in your area, hit it up – especially if there’s places nearby where you can climb outside.

One can “boulder” which is climbing, low, very difficult routes (problems) on one’s own, without another person. But climbing is a great way to meet people and get into a fucking amazing sport – amazing shape too.

I can easily kill four or five hours in the gym here if I feel so inclined. It’s cheap too!

Geocaching has a one time start-up fee of a handheld GPS. You can get a perfectly serviceable one for $60 on sale or $100ish if not. Other than that, it is totally free and like treasure hunting. It’s the best!

I also like coloring in coloring books.

Cooking is a great hobby (as @cyrusbond noted). You can play around, but too, grab some good cookbooks. Mark Bittman’s minimalist books, as well as How to Cook Everything are really good for beginners. And the NYT (for which Mr. Bittman writes) has a very good Food & Wine section, with lots of great recipes.

Also, allrecipes.com is a great place to find recipes.

aisde from that, try learning a new language. is there a language group in your area that is dominate (Spanish, French, Arabic)? Try to learn that language. There’s an online service called Mango, which helps to learn languages. I’m also partial to the Pimsleur language kits, of which there are a variety of sizes and price ranges.

Or you could try to read 52 books in 52 weeks!

@Jamspoon, if you ever make it to Arkansas, hit me up. I know some great areas to climb.

@cyrusbond

hmm, well I’m into music, films, traveling, learning Italian, i’ve always wanted to learen martial arts and just recently joined the jiu jitsu club at my university (they only meet on monday nights though).

I’m a pretty fit guy. 6’1’’ around 180 lbs and the only place I need to get fat off is my gut. I’ve been pretty athletic/active my whole life so a very physical hobby wouldn’t be a problem.

And finally I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Probably one of the main sources of my conundrum—simply put there isn’t much to do in Louisiana unless you live in New Orleans or want to go fishing/hunting).

@EmpressPixie

Now i’m looking up geocaching. I’ve heard of it but, until now, never knew what it was.

Well @elchoopanebre, you could always take up alcoholism…that’s the state past time in LA! Like we said before, take up climbing. Shoes are about 60–120, and a gym fee…but it’ll get ya in incredible shape pretty quick, you do meet some rocking people, and it’s a great life long hobby. You could always get a girl lol.

@cyrusbond alcoholism is great, but pricey. unless you drink Milwaukee’s Best and plastic bottle booze.

girls cost more.

Climbing can tend to quickly turn from being something you spend time doing into something that you make time to do and everything else in your life revolves around.

I started climbing when I was sixteen and haven’t stopped since. I’ve “stopped” climbing for a year at one point simply because I couldn’t do it where I was and even after a year I was still in solid shape – at least it didn’t take more than a few days on the rock to get back where I was.

The trick is to push yourself, always.

@eponymoushipster, MB is way too pricy! Go with natty ice and heaven hill! Lol.

@cyrusbond hi-5 dude. 24 for 3.95$.

I second climbing. You may be able to find an indoor gym in your area for learning the basics, or look online for clubs or groups to join. It’s a good way to meet like minded individuals, get outside, and get some great exercise.

Does your local university have an extension service? You can learn a lot about gardening from them if they do. In these economically shifting times I’ll bet there are a lot of resources for learning how to garden and can foods.

Okay everyone, what’s with all the climbing suggestions? Good Lord, is it really THAT fun? I might have to try it.

I’ve only seen one rock climbing wall in my rec center. Other than that there’s really nowhere I could do it and Louisiana’s flat so I don’t see too many natural things to climb…

@elchoopanebre it’s making me want to try it. but my gym doesn’t have it…some malls offer a climbing thing as a “form of recreation”.

I don’t know you well enuff to give you a really appropriate answer elchoopanebre but you did mention gardening. I really enjoy doing that and you can do it all year round too. In the Spring and Summer – outdoors of course but in the Winter and late Fall & early Spring you can do herbs that you can use in your cooking as well as low growing sedum that bloom for really pretty accents around the house. You start by getting a little greenhouse environment – sold at Home Depot and Walmart… I like the one with 72 compressed peat disks… buy a couple or 3 packets of seeds, follow the directions on the lil greenhouse and you will be amazed! The whole set up costs way under $20. Once the herbs are well underway you will need some potting soil (Scotts with slow release fertilizer) and some individual clay or plastic pots. You can paint the pots and include the name of the Herb… makes great gifts too! Happy Gardening! Hugs from Katie

@SherlockPoems

can you show me the alleged $20 greenhouse

I just looked for greenhouses online and they’re all hundreds of dollars.

edit: are you talking about this kind of thing?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8728361

You play “a few” instruments; you’re in Baton Rouge; get off your duff, dude, and join a band. There must be a ton of ‘em.

What do you play, anyway?

Grow herbs.
Collect thumbtacks.
Revive old furniture.
Study a language.

@daloon

guitar, sing, harmonica, bass, drums, mandolin, ukulele

me and a friend have a band…sort of. (http://www.myspace.com/horatiospersuasion) It’s mostly just acoustic stuff; but yeah we should start gigging or something.

@elchoopanebre: you want to gig? That’ll definitely take up all the time you’ve got (and that’s just trying to get the gig). Then you’ll have to make time for the actual gig.

Bellydancing, knitting, swing dancing.

I think this book might help: http://www.amazon.com/Get-Hobby-All-Consuming-Diversions-Lifestyle/dp/0061215279

. . . or perhaps wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby

I personally love playing music and collecting things (though the latter often has a high price tag). Geocaching is fun, but I don’t go very often. Based on all the posts above I need to try climbing too.

How do you have those interests and still have time to kill? I should be so lucky! I don’t have time for everything I already want to do.

If you’re interested in cooking, try seeing if local restaurants or kitchen supply stores have a short series of cooking classes. We have several places here that do this. My husband went to a few grilling classes because that was what he was most interested in. If you haven’t cooked at all before (or, as you say, if you don’t know where to start) you’ll find a lot more of these useful than if you’ve been cooking for a while. But they’re fun and you’ll meet some people with similar interests. These classes can range from free to very pricey depending on what you’re doing and who they have teaching, but you can always check out what’s available in your area.

Also, check your local library for I’m Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown. You’ll find a lot in there to get you started.

Learn a language, nothing like opening more opportunities and learning to do something cool

@LKidKyle1985
I’m learning italian. :-)

It has been a great experience so far and after 3 semesters I’m finally being able to express what I’m thinking (for the most part).

Book Club.
Geocaching.
Scrabble.

If you have an iPhone, the geocaching start up fee is now $10 at most. Geocaching.com has an app that is $9.99 and just PERFECT for caching. I love it! And it reduces the start up cost massively. And is incredibly easy to use.