When I get a hobby, it's not a small thing. I have to go all out. I've always been this way. As a kid, I carefully cataloged all my stamps. I set up a library system for all my books. I got my first penpal when I was 10 years old, and by high school I had 60 of them.
As an adult, I became a fan of the TV show Northern Exposure. I collected plenty of NoEx things including actual items from the show. When I did a web site tribute, I didn't just do a single page or two. I went hog wild (moose wild?).
The hubby bought me an MP3 player a couple of years ago. I heard a song I liked on Grey's Anatomy. I looked it up, downloaded it from Napster. Then I decided that ALL the music on Grey's is pretty cool so spent an afternoon downloading all the songs from seasons one and two. (I'm behind in the current season, but not for long, for sure).
Another hobby gets me off the computer and lets me be a little more creative. I make cards and things with stamps. Because I've spent so much time (and money) with it, I recently became a Stampin Up demonstrator. Although this may have made this worse. I can buy a lot more now!
One of my latest obsession is books. Part of it stemmed from dismanteling and moving my floor to ceiling bookshelves from one room to another. I started to realize how many books I have and how many I haven't read. I have to hold myself back at the 3-for-2 Borders table or at Costco. Even looking at amazon.com the other day, I had to refrain from ordering used books from my amazon wish list.
A couple of years ago, I joined Bookcrossing.com. I had heard something about it somewhere and thought, what a cool idea. You register your books and pass them on when they're read. It's a little tough to let some go (and they have a Permanent Collection section). I've released and caught several books so far. But now I've been into "controlled releases" where I'm handing off the book to someone I know will read it. The idea is that people will journal the travels of the book as they get it. You don't have to be a member to journal. I'd love to know where they go.
I've discovered a couple of companion sites to bookcrossing. The first is RABCK.com. That stands for Random Act of Bookcrossing Kindness. Basically you sign up on the site, enter a few key things (like your mailing address and book type preferences). So it's not completely random in the sense of the word, but you can search through the database, find someone who has a reading preference for a book you're releasing and send it to them in the mail.
Related to this one, another Bookcrosser set up a place for you to list your books wish list. So if you're on RABCK, someone can look at your wish list and maybe surprise send you one of those books.
Bookcrossing has many places to join up fellow readers. I've been signing up for bookrings and bookrays. Basically a ring is where you set up a group of people who want to read a particular book. The first person reads and sends it to the second, etc. until the last person who then sends it back to the first person (who started it). It's way to see your book travel and a bit more controlled (since other members are BC members, greater chance they'll journal it and pass it on).
The last related site is paperbackswap.com -- which pretty much explains itself. You get credits for uploading your list and for each book that reaches its destination. Again -- more of a controlled release because the recipient is looking for that exact title. Kind of another cool way to swap your books.
Now if I could just get obsessed with spring cleaning ...
Currently reading: "Alphabet Weekends" - Elizabeth Noble
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