the question itself is unusual, be prepared for some weird answers!
When I first started collecting beads there were very few books on beads and the ones available were hard to find. The Fenstermaker series comes to mind as one of the first booklets I found as well as the Canadian book on beads, Classification and Nomenclature of Beads and Pendants....... I remember finding this forum years after I started collecting, (actually thinking I was weird because there weren't any collectors around my area or so I thought).....anyway I focused on several bead types that I found interesting and worth my time and set out to find out all I could, this led me to form my own opinions on many things about bead history that were eventually proven wrong or correct as the case may be......so in my beholder's eye, I formulated some theories on bead history and some I got from books and eventually from personal interaction with the "experts"........