Can you afford your special interests?

We hear so much about autistic people and special interests and so many people have them and enjoy them, but we never hear about people who can't afford them, what do they do?

I can't afford mine, I love early medieval history and things associated with it, such as archeology, but I can't afford it, I could easily spend £3-400 on books every month, many of the books I'd like are out of print or in limited print runs and cost between £80 and £200, I've looked online and many are as expensive as ebooks as they are print editions, if they exist as ebooks at all. Many journals are expensive too and online resourses are too and many are really aimed at organisations such as universities rather than private people.

It's frustrating to have an interest that I find so consuming, but can't afford to follow or find others to even talk about it with, but then how many people know the Anglo-Saxon conversion period even existed, let alone know anything about it?

Parents
  • I love history too!

    Could you maybe be able to get free access through your local library? Many libraries will offer free access to things like JSTOR as part of their services. They might be able to do it for other journals or research materials too. 

    My problem is that while I do have interests and projects that I want to work on, and engaging in them makes me feel so much better, I'm so burnt out from work and housework that i have no energy (physically and mentally) left at the end of the day to do anything. And the weekend is spent catching up on housework I've not been able to do while working, and then recovering from the week so I'm not starting the next week in an energy deficit.

Reply
  • I love history too!

    Could you maybe be able to get free access through your local library? Many libraries will offer free access to things like JSTOR as part of their services. They might be able to do it for other journals or research materials too. 

    My problem is that while I do have interests and projects that I want to work on, and engaging in them makes me feel so much better, I'm so burnt out from work and housework that i have no energy (physically and mentally) left at the end of the day to do anything. And the weekend is spent catching up on housework I've not been able to do while working, and then recovering from the week so I'm not starting the next week in an energy deficit.

Children
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