“When I have a little money, I buy books, and if I have any left over I buy food and clothes.” – Erasmus

This should be my quote, except instead of “when I have a little money,” it might well read, “whether I bloody well have any money or not.” I might have gone a little mad with my purchases this week, so let me start with the things that were free!

My husband pointed me toward the works of entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, so I found free copies of The Hunting Wasps, Insect Life, and The Life of the Spider on the internet archive. 

I once read and chuckled over the Shakespearian version of Star Wars so I also picked up the free kindle version of William Shakespeare’s The Hobbit. 

Searching on ResearchGate, I found a monograph about the Eurasian lynx; I love it when scientists make their research free! 

I also borrowed a couple of vintage animal fiction books from open library: Tawny the mountain lion and The Wahoo Bobcat. I’m hoping they can be part of my “big cats in literature” project.

Finally, my awesome mom sent me a gift card to get, in her words, “a guilt free book,” so I got The Return of the Wolf and pre-ordered the next Phoebe and Her Unicorn!

Now for the things that were not free – but were cheap! In doing more big cat research, I found a kindle copy of The Jungle Wife. I have almost no jaguar sources, so this felt like a must-have. 

As I mentioned above, I also got a good deal on SPQR. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Amazon is using my internet searches to mark things down. “Oooh,” their AI thinks, “she’s into Rome right now! Mark down some books about Rome!” If they’re fishing for me, cheap ebooks is the correct bait! 

Next came a St. Patrick’s Day sale from Betterworldbooks. I secure the Richard IIIgraphic novel and Animals Strike Curious Poses for $3.50 apiece. 

And, finally, the things that were neither free nor necessarily cheap. What do I call them? The unwise purchases? Sure – those! Included among the unwise purchases:

Our History is the Future – More Native American issues!

Never Contented Things – The description reminded me of Labyrinth. 

 
G’morning, G’night – I listened to this on Scribd and fell in love with it. It really is the perfect antidote for a crummy week.

Fall back down when I die – Issues of class and wolf hunting!

Augustus: the life of Rome’s first emperor – My Shakespeare class really took to Octavius, so they inspired this purchase.

Although it in no way balances this vast list, I did finish a few books this week, too.

The first was Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You. It was certainly interesting and brought to mind a quote I read once that people who didn’t believe in mind control, portals to other dimensions, or aliens had never attended a decent sized rock concert. I didn’t care for the narrator, however, which spoiled things somewhat. 

The second, and far more satisfying, was NeedfulThings. Admittedly, it very much jumped an entire shiver of sharks at the shark (hell carriages? What?) but Norris, Polly, and Alan were all very relatable. My favorite part was Polly’s fight with the spider. It’s a recurring nightmare of mine – fighting a big spider – so I was cheering her on! 
 

Probably not Polly's spider! ;)

That’s all for this week! Hopefully next week my head will stop throbbing and I will have more to report!