I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I watch an ungodly amount of aquarium / terrarium videos, lurk a ton of aquascaping communities. I owned a betta fish in an empty bowl when I was 12 and that's it. (poor fish)
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
I read a hundred pages long horse breeding guide for the game black desert online and I have no idea why. I only played the game for a month, spent most of it reading a google doc about horse. I'm not even sure I owned a horse in the game.
Sometimes I try the hobby, for example mini painting, and don't have the patience for it. But I still watch some random dudes on youtube paint for hours and sometimes they don't even talk!
I do the same! And you know, I think this is a hobby by itself. It's also very useful when talking with strangers if they tell you they practice one of the hobbies you've binged on. You can ask them more pointed, interesting questions and it makes for great conversations!
Ever been screened for ADHD by any chance? I do this same thing. I call myself a serial hobbyist because I just bounce from one thing to the next. I'm always glad when I lose interest before I spend any money.
Barbara Sher (rip) has a great book, Refuse to Choose, that does a great job of reframing ones thinking about bouncing around between projects / hobbies and not "finishing" them.
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I do this too! I love watching like videos where people make jewelry or phone cases using resin. It requires a ventilated area though and I live in an apartment with no patio so I couldn't do it even if I wanted to.
I also watch nail polish videos cause nail painting is an amazing artform that is really difficult to do because its painting with material that hardens when exposed to oxygen or UV lighting. It also takes a ton of skill to get really good at it and people use all kinds interesting methods to get different results or looks. But yeah, I don't have the patience to learn that beyond just painting my own nails and maybe some decals but that's all I could handle.
I read all you could know about book binding fanfiction, never done it.
Found it hard to parse, and my mind immediately went with “Yeah, of course people have written fanfics about book binding,” foolishly extending rule 34 to cover it. Of course, there might have been that one fanfic about bookbinding.
But yeah, of course people have printed and bookbinded (bookbound[ed]?) fanfics. But for that to have a community? That's unexpected.
I would be immensely amused if "bookbinding fanfiction" was called Rule 69.
I know that's not what you meant, but it's where my mind went, haha. Fanfiction is all about the weird insider eccentricities, and this sounds like it could be one of them.
mini painting and ADHD is a funny one. I can have months of ultra focus and paint a whole small army up, then I have tiny bursts and it takes months just to finish a few models. I currently have 8 guys I've been working on since June about 50% done and I'm no high level painter
I like learning about random ass hobbies without ever indulging in them.
I write sci-fi/fantasy stuff, and I do this too, but mostly so I can gift this or that character with some plausible insider info on a hobby THEY have.
The trick with creating a fantasy/sci-fi universe is to sprinkle true/plausible things all around the little details, so the obviously fantastical that doesn't have grounding in reality will be accepted by the reader.