The worst tarot books you have come across

Mimers

Don't worry about not liking Mary Greer. It is not a requirement here ;)

I think the worst book I have seen is Tarot Tips from the Llewelyn series. Mostly useless information that was poorly organized.
 

Phantom Goddess

Mimers said:
Don't worry about not liking Mary Greer. It is not a requirement here ;)

I think the worst book I have seen is Tarot Tips from the Llewelyn series. Mostly useless information that was poorly organized.

What was so crappy about this book? It's on my wishlist ;)
 

Mimers

Phantom Goddess said:
What was so crappy about this book? It's on my wishlist ;)

Nothing if you ask me. I think the book is outstanding. You do need to use a notebook with it, because in the book there just isn't enough room for all of your thoughts.

I recomend it highly if you like the workbook type of learning. It is a lot like school. You do different exercises and readings and write them in your Journal. It is a great way to come up with your own meanings for the cards.

Mimi
 

VGimlet

"Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortunetelling"

They lifted heavily from Eden Gray's "Mastering the Tarot", in my opinion. Not cool. Neither of those books is the best, either, although in days gone by, "Mastering the Tarot" was a breath of fresh air in a grim landscape. Or so I've heard. :)
 

sassygirl3124

Ok I have read the post on here and I agree that Tarot made easy is a horrible book but one good point to this book is it has some good spreads in it, but certainly not a reason to go and buy this book.

Also the Tarot for beginners book by Hollander was the book that I bought to learn from but I really didn't learn from it at all I now realize. I actually just bought tarot for yourself by Greer and I loved this book but I do have to agree that it should give me space for notes and stuff but other than that I think her book was the turning point for me in reading the tarot. I can't say enough good things about it.

Julie
 

shelikes2read

VGimlet said:
"Idiot's Guide to Tarot and Fortunetelling"

They lifted heavily from Eden Gray's "Mastering the Tarot", in my opinion. Not cool. Neither of those books is the best, either, although in days gone by, "Mastering the Tarot" was a breath of fresh air in a grim landscape. Or so I've heard. :)

Actually, I'm pretty fond of Eden Gray's "Mastering the Tarot" -- it's the book I learned to read with. (I recently got a new copy of it, in fact, after realizing that my original copy, bought in 1978, is about this-close to disintegrating due to age and use.)

I haven't seen the Idiot's Guide yet... but unless Eden Gray either assisted writing it, or specifically gave them permission to borrow heavily from her book, then HECK NO pilfering her work is not cool at all.

Now you've got me curious to see the Idiot's Guide. Next time I see it in a book store, I'll have to make a point of skimming through it. "Mastering the Tarot" was the only reference book I had for a number of years, so I'm sure I'll be able to spot similarities... particularly if the similarities are bordering on plagiarism.
 

ihcoyc

Away, away back in the 1970s, the first two books I got were Eden Gray's A Complete Guide. . . ., and Stuart Kaplan's Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling.

I got the Kaplan book because it was supposed to be the one that went with the first deck I had, which was the Swiss 1JJ deck, while Gray described the Rider Waite deck. Couldn't get a thing out of the Kaplan book, it was basically a list of keywords for each card. Instead, I went through Gray and taught myself to visualize the Rider Waite pictures for the minors from its illustrations, and read with my deck and those images in mind. Which probably was a fairly good discipline, but the Kaplan book taught nothing.
 

VGimlet

shelikes2read said:
Now you've got me curious to see the Idiot's Guide. Next time I see it in a book store, I'll have to make a point of skimming through it. "Mastering the Tarot" was the only reference book I had for a number of years, so I'm sure I'll be able to spot similarities... particularly if the similarities are bordering on plagiarism.

I had them both side by side, and I was very dismayed. I can't remember if they cited it in the bibliography, but even so...yikes.

When I first got my deck, the only books I could find were the Kaplan book, and a book I special ordered that went with my Aquarian.
("and back then, I lived in a shoebox and had to walk ten miles in a blizzard to school".....LOL)

I didn't find Mastering the Tarot until several years ago, when it was referred to in something else. :) I really love that there are so many tarot books easily available now - we can all find the ones that work for us.
 

Mesara

Lark mentioned Emily Peach's book of vomit, and I have to second that.
 

BlueLotus

Although I refer to this book, Tarot for Beginners quite often, I tend to have a love/hate relationship with it.
I love it because of the obvious effort put into it, and the insights I get every time I am lost for meanings. There are loads to learn and there are generous sections on fortune telling and spreads.
But for the hate thing, I admit that at times it rubs me the wrong way, particularly when it comes to reading the reversed meanings/cards.
The author does have a firm belief that reversed cards carry negative connotations, to the point of predicting death and major bad luck, illnesses, and catasrphies. The order of suits in this book starts with Swords ( probably that gives some insight into what I am talking about ), when most books star their minor arcanas with wands.