A hobby is nothing but a gentle and pleasant occupation designed to take the tired brain off the burden of the main task. It is not one’s main business or occupation; it is an alternative mental occupation. I believe that every person should have a hobby because, without a favorite occupation, it’s just boring to live. Hobby helps to develop a person, because, while doing what he likes, a person always strives to learn something new about his favorite occupation, often communicates with other people who are addicted to the same thing. A person who has a hobby tries to read. Everyone has a favorite hobby. I have also a favorite hobby. My favorite Hobby is ‘Reading Novels’. There was a time when parents used to look with disapproval if they found their children reading novels. People thought that the reading of novels had a corrupting influence on the minds of young people. Novels create thrilling emotional situations. Constant reading of such thrilling and fanciful situations keeps the mind in a state of unhealthy excitement. Romantic stories often tend to develop a romantic and unreal attitude of life. Everyone likes to be the hero or heroine of a romance. But the vast majority of the people are only common people, leading a hum-drum existence. Hence, when they face realities, they are found wanting. Another evil is that too much attention to novels often makes one neglect other studies and makes one light-minded. There are young men and women, who, if they get hold of a good novel, forget everything else and read absorbingly.
However, it is admitted that the study of novels has also it beneficial aspects. It widens our mental horizon. It opens our eyes to various types of men and women and teaches character study; it forces us to pay attention to many unpleasant but hard realities of life. It brings us face to face with life and its problems. A good novel is a recreation of life, as its running commentary besides overwhelmingly romantic novels; there are the social and political novels. They help our social consciousness. The historical novel gives us insight into life as it was in the past and make the bygone life before our eyes with all its color and pomp. Others like science fiction may help us take a peep into the future about things to come. Novels are sometimes known to have exercised a far-reaching influence on human history. Novels are works of art. They create life on the plane of imagination. They help us to see life as it is and as it should be. But like a true work of art, a good novel gives a vision of the scope of life. The characters, as well as the forces, the situations, and their emotional effects, are presented true to life. That is also the reason why most creative minds in literature in this century have been drawn to this genre.
