| It's great to meet you reader! Well, you obviously | | | | Coffee table butterfly books? I have to say I much |
| share a passionwith me for butterfly books, and I | | | | prefer thesetype of books. Well they are designed |
| appreciate that. You see I'vebeen mad about books | | | | to be visually exciting aren'tthey? I have to admit to |
| for years; I've been interested inbutterflies since I | | | | owning a number of them! Everythingfrom the artistic |
| was a child. Putting the two together means Iget | | | | to the scientific. They tend to be a lot |
| twice the fun when reading books about butterflies. I | | | | moreexpensive so I make a habit of keeping a |
| guessthat means you probably do too! | | | | number of butterflybooks on my general pressies list |
| Since butterflies are such a visual thing, glossy book | | | | when people ask for them. |
| containingphotographs of the splendid little butterfly | | | | There's another market for books on butterflies you |
| are such a treat. Thebooks generally tend to fall into | | | | may not havehave considered - the second hand |
| two camps: | | | | market. There's a wealth ofbooks available out there |
| - field guides | | | | and many of them are real gems. Inparticular I am |
| - coffee table books | | | | referring to very old books written between say |
| Butterfly field guides are great for identifying | | | | 1860 and 1910. This was a time when butterflies of all |
| butterflies in natureor in your back garden. They tend | | | | types werequite common and easy to observe and |
| to be on the smaller scale in sizeand weight so that | | | | lots of books were writtenby would-be butterfly |
| carrying them around is so much easier. Iusually carry | | | | collectors of the day. |
| one in my back pack whenever I go walking in | | | | You can gather a lot of fascinating information in |
| thesummer. These butterfly books display a range of | | | | these butterflybooks as they were written in a |
| butterflies for aparticular region, using either | | | | completely different style tothat of today. They |
| photographs or finely detailedpaintings. | | | | talked about a lot of the detail when findingand |
| Written details will often include habitats, markings, | | | | chasing butterflies in the field and gives an insight into |
| distributionand when they can be seen. They will | | | | thesocial history of the day. There are a lot of |
| sometimes includeinformation on foodplants for the | | | | butterfly identificationbooks written in the 20th |
| butterfly. This will help youidentify if an area is | | | | century which resemble coffee tablebooks and are |
| suitable for supporting certain species ofbutterfly, | | | | still highly relevant. The only differences are that |
| after all, without that particular plant or plants (and | | | | afew of the butterflies may now be extinct, but |
| theyare usually restricted to a very small number of | | | | otherwise they arestill good to use. Worth checking |
| plants) thebutterfly will not survive. | | | | out when you are next in asecond hand bookshop. |