Judaism, which is part of my heritage. Read everything I could get my hands on. For about two days a few years ago I was convinced I could live a modern Orthodox lifestyle, then realized that I'm far, far too lazy and scatterbrained for such a disciplined thing. Been listening to a lot of cool klezmer music tho, and still want to learn to read the prayers in Hebrew.

West Point, and what it must be like to go to school there. Read this book and watched this video, which were terrific.

Instruments. Am taking violin lessons for no good reason, and am going to buy a viola in the next few weeks. I also want to learn to play the oboe, partially inspired by the book Mozart in the Jungle, an excellent history of classical music in the U.S. and description of what it can be like as a classical musician in New York City. And, a vindication of my childhood--I wasn't the only one who thought that the flaky, artistic adults around me, who had no explanation for how the bills would get paid, were weird!

I'm fascinated by lots of stuff as well. Lately I've been getting back into Roman history, especially reading about specific emperors like Aurelian. I also have been delving into more recent stuff about the Byzantine empire which was written off by earlier Roman scholars, but recently has been given more credit for being more interesting and sophisticated than earlier thought.

My latest has been a foray into French polish which is for more practical reasons since I've started using the method for the first time on one of my wood shop projects. There's a good tutorial here.

There's lots of other stuff too.

The American Revolution and first few presidencies, which probably seems very boring to you Americans, but I never really learnt about it much in school, so it's fascinating to me. I just finished a book about the election of 1800. Holy crap, and I thought the electioneering, smearing and factionalism were bad now. Partisan politics: always the same.

Oh yes! I've gotten obsessed with the American Civil War, and with the varieties of orthodox Judaism as well. (I live near the Hasidic part of town here, so I'm always curious about what is up with the dress code and customs.)

gaspode: You should read American Aurora, which views the intense partisanship of the 1790s through the lens of the (anti-Federalist) Aurora, a Philadelphia newspaper. You'll never look at George Washington the same way again! (Copies available from Amazon Marketplace for under a dollar, or try your local library.)

taters.

These were mainly not found in wikipedia.

How R&B evolved into funk and analysis of the various rhythm structures in both and syncopation in general. Also, a bit on the chords and scales used and how they resist falling into full-blown jazz.

Early 20th century Appalachian folk witchcraft and how it was affected by that period's huge Irish immigration. No book has ever been written on this topic apparently and I do not have access to an academic search engine to find what historians have published in journals.

Short story writing techniques and how they differ from novels.

@gaspode: You may be surprised at how little americans know about the formation of this country and its first presidencies.

Thank you, languagehat! I just requested it by interloan (I love the New York public library system.)

gaspode: I highly recommend Founding Brothers, it is a series of essays outlining six crucial points in early American history. Good stuff.

A class I'm taking led me to read extensively, far more than required, about French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz.

I was also recently turned on to the [Discussion] tab on wikipedia . . . no matter the topic, it is almost always fascinating/amusing.

Thank you for the recommendation too, geekyguy! I see that it's in at my local library so I will pick it up today.
Ardiril - yeah, people tell me that, and I can believe it, simply because I don't know that much about NZ history. It always bored me in school and I was much more interested in reading about other countries.

geekyguy: Berlioz and Franz Liszt were my obsessions a couple years ago when I was transcribing Liszt works for guitar.

Ardiril: got a university library nearby? There is a lot of academic work on Irish-Appalachian culture and I'd expect plenty on witchcraft, as well. Here's a paper you can download from the Appalachian Studies conference. Sort of a fanpage here on Banshee tales and their Irish origins. And I'm finding pointers to mentions of witchery in this book and this one. Here's a journal piece but of course, not one you can read for free.

Great topic. I know a lot more about Appalachian music than about spirituality, but I've run across it enough to find a lot out there. Like I said, if you've got a college library nearby you can usually do a free journal search using their databases. A lot of times I use a single journal piece like this to go down the rabbit hole - read it, then look for everything in the bibliography and read those, etc.

I've been somewhat focused on the "Missouri Compromise" of late ...

Sugar work, especially work with Gum Paste and Sugar Casting. In particular historic sugar work (see here for some photos and examples) as done in the 15th - 18th centuries.

@gaspode: You may be surprised at how little americans know about the formation of this country and its first presidencies.

That's certainly true of me. I think the Revolution gets short shrift in America's American History classes. They're trying to cover the Civil War and the tumultuous 20th century and the Revolutionary War loses out.

Also, a closer look at the Revolution might uncover some embarrassing and inconvenient facts, such as the military role of France in the war. The USA owes its existence as an independent nation-state to France; if France had decided not to commit soldiers and money to the cause, we could not have won. Also problematic is the anti-democratic elitism of many of the Founding Fathers, which makes it harder to take their rhetoric -- and the contemporary rhetoric that draws on theirs -- at face value.

Loiseau, you are my creepy brain soul mate! In the last month I have been reading about cytokine storms, immune system disorders, the Anasagunticook indians (on my dad's side), fan death, the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine (again, on my dad's side), and Exploding Head Syndrome (a conditions I have, but had no idea it had a name until recently).

Thanks, miko. Just what I found so far has inspired a few short stories but if I can find the right article, I think I can pull an historical novel out of it.

THat's a great idea. Good spooky potential.

Interesting point about the rhetoric, j_p, but I think the amazing thing about some of that stuff is that they really were creating a new middle ground between tyrannical rule of the aristocracy and the scrabble of the streets. The self-consciously over-balanced nature of the representative system they created was really wary of large mobbish actions by the people - but that very thing made their governmental form so stable that it has never since suffered a successful revolution. Without the structures the elitism helped to create, I'm not sure we could say that (lots of Western countries can't, France included!).

Also, they were pretty aware they were laying down stuff for the ages. There are so many places where they note that, and left provision for future Americans with different views to make changes. They did collectively understand that it wouldn't be all about them forever. So even when you see their presumptions and blind spots clearly, you also see places where they understand that a future age may make different determinations. And they didn't disallow that.

I spend more time reading about comics on the internet (esp. various wikisites) than I used to spend reading actual comics. It's cheaper, though.

The Portugese diaspora. Obscure sitcoms. Old time radio.

Wow, that does sounds great idea Adiril. I remember reading a novel about fifteen or twenty years ago (it had a dark blue cover and the authors name was mc something, maybe colleen mc...) that had the theme that the Appalachians were a continuation of certain hills in Ireland (or maybe Scotland?) and the mountain range came across from Europe and under the ocean and across Eastern Canada and New England down to Tennessee (or maybe it was one of the Virginias?). The mountain range had absorbed all the mystical power of the witches in Europe and it flowed (kinda like ley lines) to the witches/mystics in America. So the novel was all about that connection and I think there were ghosts and other supernatural happenings. I am amazed how much of that stayed with me. At the time I was working part-time in a bookshop and had access to a treasure trove of remaindered paperbacks. And the time to read them!

After a few minutes googling ... I think it is Sharyn McCrumb and her magical realism. Now I am off to read Miko's links.