- Emily Stoll
- Tuesday, August 04, 2020
If you're looking for a way to pass the time, which many of us seem to have more of these days, hobbies are a perfect distraction.
Discover something you love or try something new. Hobbies are fun to do, and they help us learn new skills - keeping our minds and bodies active and engaged.
Our staff is offering some suggestions to help you get started, which were recently featured in The State newspaper. They are easy to explore from the comfort of your home or around your neighborhood.
Carolinas Gardener’s Handbook by Toby Bost
Available in hoopla
Recommended by Megan Mathis
Does staying at home have your green thumbs itching? “Carolinas Gardener’s Handbook” is a one-shop stop for relevant and practical region-specific information for your garden. The book is broken down into sections by types of plants: Annuals, Bulbs; Lawns; Perennials; Vegetables; etc. Each section has descriptions of the common plants grown in the Carolinas, including a photo and how to plant, grow and care for the plant. At the end of each section, you will find a breakdown of monthly to-dos for each type of plant.
While there are other more detailed books for specific types of plants, such as vegetables or perennials, the “Carolinas Gardener’s Handbook” is a great starting point for beginning gardeners and a reference point for experienced gardeners as well. You’ll find yourself returning to the monthly checklists year after year.
Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Available in hoopla
Recommended by Sara Shiver McBride
The thing about knitting is that it looks complicated, but it’s really just one stitch over and over, done forwards and backwards or in different colors or in a creative order. (Non-knitters never believe me when I tell them this.) If you know how to do that one stitch (knit), and then how to do it backwards (purl), you’ll learn a lot about the rest of it from this classic book. Don’t be fooled by the dated examples on the cover. Yes, knitting fashion was different in 1974 when this book was published, but any knitter who wants to understand how to go beyond blindly following patterns has something to learn from Elizabeth Zimmermann; her goal is to teach you techniques to make anything you want and to make it to fit. Her delightfully practical personality shines in this book, which takes you through a year of knitting – Aran sweaters in January… baby things in February… all the way to slipper socks in November and last-minute gift sweaters in December. This selection is for curious knitters of all skill levels.
Martha Stewart’s Organizing: The Manual for Bringing Order to Your Life, Home and Routines by Martha Stewart
Available in Overdrive
Recommended by Ariel Hackett
If you are looking for various ways to stay entertained at home, this title may be something to add to your collection. How about knocking out a few projects and getting your life back on track while you have the extra time? Martha Stewart’s latest book covers a multitude of ways to re-organize your personal and professional life. Whether you are someone who likes to calendar plan and map out things in advance or you are someone looking to re-vamp a room in your home, Stewart helps you get on track to become very successful at your stay-cation projects. If you are not a big fan of organizing or projects, that’s okay! This book is the perfect gift.
It’s filled with almost 300 pages of guidelines, schedules, captivating photography and information to fit just about any situation and lifestyle imaginable. So, dust off your planners and dream boards, and let’s get to work on turning the year 2020 around one project at a time.
Southern Birds: Bird Watcher’s Digest Backyard Guide by Bill Thompson III
Available in hoopla
Recommended by Sarah Cameron
Begin a thrilling journey into the natural world with this backyard guide from Bird Watcher’s Digest. Birding is a highly versatile and accessible hobby that can be done anywhere; it can be as intensive as traveling the world in search of elusive species and as simple and low key as gazing out your kitchen window over morning coffee. Bill Thompson’s guide provides readers with everything they need to know to get started; there are practical tips for attracting and identifying birds, a brief guide to equipment and keeping a life list, and detailed profiles of the birds likely to visit a South Carolina yard. Used in conjunction with a free field guide app that provides recordings of songs and calls (both Audubon’s Bird Guide and Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are excellent), new birders will be fully equipped to take up a pastime that will provide years of enjoyment and engagement with nature.
USA & Canada, A Selection of Common Bird Songs by Various Artists
Available in Freegal
Recommended by Lisa Gieskes
If you are spending more time in the backyard or on a walk around the neighborhood, you may be hearing more birds. Birds are chirping, so why not spring into birding? Springtime is the feasting and nesting season for birds, and there is no better time than now then to identify them through their song. The easiest hobby you can take up is birding because all it takes is looking outside and listening. Get a jump start on your birding hobby with the album “USA & Canada, A Selection of Common Bird Songs” (Various Artists). There are sixty-two different bird songs, all that you are most likely to hear here in the Carolinas. You can hear the song of the Carolina Wren (the official state bird of South Carolina), Red Bellied Woodpecker, American Crow, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Baltimore Oriole, Mourning Dove, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, Bobwhite, Prairie Warbler, Sandhill Crane, Red Headed Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker and more. The big bonus - birdsongs can help you relax.
Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque (2004)
Directed by Jacques Richard
Available in Kanopy
Recommended by Keith Brinkmann
Imagine you’ve begun to research your family genealogy and make the horrific discovery that most records before 1950 were either not preserved by accident or even intentionally destroyed. This scenario might have been a reality for anyone interested in studying the genealogy of motion pictures. Only a fraction of the first half century of films produced survive to our day, and if not for the heroic efforts of the pioneers of film collection and preservation, we would be faced with an even greater share lost. In this French documentary, directed by Jacques Richard, countless luminaries of French filmmaking lovingly celebrate Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinémathèque Française, as one of these pioneers.
Langlois started a silent film club in 1935, and soon after, began the process of building a collection of early films. When the Nazis invaded Paris, they ordered the destruction of all films made before 1937, and the collection had to be smuggled out of the country. Later, the danger of warehouse fires, fueled by the flammable nitrate film stock in use through the 1940s, lead to the intentional destruction of many film archives. This documentary gracefully captures the race against time to rescue movie history from oblivion.