The academic, books and the tax-man

I actually never stop being amazed at how many of my colleagues buy their own books for courses they’re going to teach and for research and never think to put this on a tax return. These days, money for travel has been cut right back also and I’m funding myself for a forthcoming conference to the tune of about £350. I don’t mind too much. I can afford it.  But it will go on my tax return. As will all my expenses for the research on this book.

In Clara’s Story I’m getting quite close to the start of the “Hilfsklasse” part. I’ve done quite a chunk of research on this already for The House on Schellberg Street. But there is more I need to find out about what happened before 1939. I’ve had to access some of the sources quoted on the Stolperstein site.

Two books I need there are quite unusual. I found them on the publishers’ sites but couldn’t order them from the publisher. I did manage to order one through Amazon UK. The other I managed to order thought Amazon DE – unusually. Also very odd was that it had my new credit card already registered even though I’ve bought nothing from them in years.

This is not a cheap hobby.  There are no e-books available of these titles. One cost £33.00 the other £16.00. I’ve already bought three other books at similar prices for this project, and a few more for The House on Schellberg Street and some papers for an academic article I wrote. All at similar prices.

It doesn’t matter, though. I’m building up a fascinating picture of Clara Lehrs.