Welcome! If you want a book, that's fine. However, there is way more information on here, and probably more current too. Besides, if you have have a question, post a thread. This forum is full of good, knowledgeable people, and responses are usually pretty fast as this is a very active forum as well. The care sheets are very helpful. We started out with tanks, but now everyone is in tubs, and love it so much better. Temps and humidity don't fluctuate, and it takes up less space. Ball pythons are addicting. Many people have more than one. You definately could get a normal at a reasonable price. For $600 you would be getting a decent morph. You could check out kingsnake classifieds, also many people here breed. I would go that route, not from a pet store. Some people have gotten them from ok pet stores, and they have been fine. But seems the majority of them have one issue or another. RI, mites, won't eat. Thank you for doing your research, and feel free to ask any and all questions!