Hobbies

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. Hobbies are divided into 4 large groups: doing, making, collecting and learning things. The most popular hobby is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities from gardening to traveling, from chess to volleyball. Both grown-ups and children are fond of playing different computer games. This hobby is becoming more and more popular. Making things include drawing, painting, handicrafts. Many people collect something - coins, stamps, compact discs, toys, books. Some collections have some value. Rich people often collect paintings, rare things and other art objects. Often such private collections are given to museums, libraries. As for me, I have a very wide range of hobbies. But I prefer not very active kind of rest. First of all my hobby is music. I think it is a very special hobby, because you can listen to music while doing any other job. I hear music my whole life, I live with it. This is fully thanks to my brother, who is a very talented musician and composer. He learnt me to feel music because I was always the first to hear his new song. So, now I like different kinds of music. I can't say with sure that I don't understand classical music and prefer pop only. I don't really choose between music of 60-s or nowadays modern groups, because in my opinion there always was and there will be great masterpieces. But of all kinds of music I prefer that one, which is really popular among lovers. I think it is very romantic and sweet and this is the reason why it fascinates me greatly. Some of my favorite groups and singers are the Beatles, the Rolling stones, Shakespeare's sisters, Elton John, Julianne Werding and Sting. But now I would like to draw your attention to English composer, singer and musician Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner. His musical career began in early 70-s when he took part in the group "Police". Later he left the group and showed his real gift. His first songs proved his independence and the scale of his abilities. "Englishman in New-York", "Sister Moon", "Desert Rose" became world hits. They were not a week's charted hits, they became people's hopes and thoughts. I really admire his songs and can say that the name of Sting will always have its place in music history. I also like computers. I wake up every morning and my first thing to do is to switch computer on. Right before falling asleep I switch it off. I can't live without computer, it is an essential component of my life. But I am not a game-player, my main interests in computers are e-mail and Internet. Through e-mail I communicate with people from different countries. E-mail makes it easy and fast. And Internet helps me to be well-informed about all world-events. In Internet I can travel to every part of the globe. So computers provide me with the most important thing - information. That's why I chose computers as my future profession. I consider them a really wonderful creation of human genius. Another thing that interests me is reading. It plays an important role in my life. As I have mentioned already, the best book for me is Bible. But I also like reading other books. Some of my favorite authors are Phillip Keller, Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Jerome Klapka Jerome, John Blanchard and Frank O'Connor. I am going to talk to you about Frank O'Connor and his story "Idealist". I intend to divide my story into four points. Firstly I will dwell on Frank O'Connor's biography, secondly - on the description of the main heroes, thirdly - on the theme of the story and finally - on my attitude to the heroes. It is useful to start with Frank O'Connor's biography. Frank O'Connor is a pseudonym of Michael Odonovan, born in Cork, Ireland in 1903. He grew up in an Irish provincial town. His published works include poems, plays, novels, translations, criticism. Frank O'Connor was a real master of the short story. He could draw his readers into Irish life, showing his sense of humour and his compassion for human beings in their loneliness and their confusion. Another point with which I want to deal is the description of the main heroes. As you know a story's success depends on how heroes are presented in the story. They can be presented through the character's actions or their speech; through a physical description and through the opinions of other characters. In the "Idealist" the heroes are presented through actions and conversations. I think that each character must have a special quality that makes you remember him for a long time. The main hero - Delany - was truthful, frank, decisive. Gorman, his classmate was mean, dishonest and unpleasant. By the way of contrast the author managed to underline the romantic nature of Delany, who created his own world of things, people and ideas. What impressed me most of all in Melonie, the teacher, it was his cruelty. He punished pupils with a cane. It goes without sign that the theme of the story is the relationships between pupils and a teacher. I think they were awful. Though Delany created his own world thanks to books, the real world turned out to differ from the imaginary one. I shall now elaborate the fourth point of my talk. I sympathize (admire, hate, spoilt my impressions of the book) with the main hero because he didn't give up reading, he continued reading books. Books broaden our horizons, enrich our mind and wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life. In the author I appreciate such qualities as: an ability to portrait life very truthfully; an ability to depict characters so vividly that people immediately recognize themselves; a sense of humor and a skill with the language. Well, I am a family-girl and I don't really spend much time with my friends. And I don't have much friends actually. I find it more interesting being all alone or with my family or with my boyfriend. And he fully shares my interests. No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By reading about the things he is interested in, he is adding to what he knows. Learning things can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby.