Your First Tarot Book(s)?

aerosa1

Wow, I love these stories! So interesting to hear people's earliest influences/studies of Tarot. So many different approaches too - some w/ families where it was forbidden, some whose families opened that path directly.

Eden Gray seems to be coming up a lot. I'll try to explore some of her work.

Thanks for sharing!
 

G6

Tarot Plain and Simple

Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis is a good reference book if you are just starting to learn the card meanings.
 

earthair

Yup, another 78 Degrees person here *waves*
 

Teheuti

Please tell us something about your experience with that first book or how you got it. I love reading the stories.

Eden Gray's _Tarot Revealed_, which was my first book, didn't even belong to me. A friend got it for Christmas 1967 (without the cards!) and I was fascinated by it and so jealous that it belonged to my friend. I remember thinking, "This is it. This is what I've been looking for!" So I went on a quest to find the deck - the first of many magical quests in my life.
 

MysticMoonlight

Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners by Joan Bunning was my very first book on Tarot. It was quite helpful and I still reference it to this day. The only thing I didn't care for all that much about it is/was her insistence on using the Celtic Cross spread. As a beginner, for me, the Celtic Cross was just too much for me early on and when I tried, it just confused and frustrated me...too much info and processing all those meanings too soon, but that's just my experience, of course.

A Magical Course in Tarot by Michele Morgan was the second book I read and oh my, I absolutely loved it. It thinks a bit "out of the box" and it fit me like a glove. I reread it from time to time because I enjoy it so much.

Power Tarot by Trish Macgregor and Phyllis Vega was my next read. It is quite possibly my favorite Tarot book. It presents itself as a book on spreads but it goes beyond that with all the meanings of the cards included. It's wonderful.

Tarot Made Easy by Nancy Garen...fantastic book. I love that it gives meanings pertaining to different issues, such as: what a card means regarding love, career, spiritually, health, etc. for each card! Love this one as well!

I followed these with Rachel Pollack's 78 Degrees of Wisdom, and while she is superbly informative and very, very through, I just don't/didn't jive with her writing style as much as some of the others I've mentioned. Her writing style, for me, reads quite "scholarly" or something...She's brilliant and I appreciate her work, but I like an "easier" read. But again, this is just my opinion, others absolutely adore her work completely.
 

WonderGuy

The Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray

The Complete Guide to the Tarot by Eden Gray was the first and only Tarot book I had for at least a decade. I snuck it in a stack of fantasy books I was trading from my local used book store (probably late '80s), because I would never have had the courage to buy it on its own. I had that book for many years before I even had a deck. No other book has been that "magical" to me since.
 

bonebeach

My mother gave me the Universal RWS when I turned 12, and I think it must have come with The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, because I got that, too. I even read it! If someone gave me that book today I don't think I could bring myself to go through it. I also had the very basic Johnathan Dee book as a kid, so it was that and LWBs for various decks for years and years.

Only now, much, much later am I starting to look for tarot books that might be a better fit. :)
 

Barleywine

The Tarot Revealed by Eden Gray was also my first tarot book, followed quickly by Mastering the Tarot. After that came The Book of Thoth to go with my first-ever deck, and I never looked back. I still use her version of the Celtic Cross (with a few tweaks of my own) and prefer its circular flow to Waite's and similar "Sign of the Cross"-style renditions.
 

jolie_amethyst

I'm afraid the only thing interesting about my book choices is that every last one of them came from a recommendation here. :)

Tarot Tells the Tale, James Ricklef (addresses learning to read via 3 card spreads)
Tarot Plain & Simple, Anthony Louis (EXCELLENT, straightforward reference)
Tarot, Your Everyday Guide, Janina Renee (Lousy title; this one very specifically addresses each card as read in an Advice position)
Tarot for Writers Corrine Kenner (using Tarot for creating works of fiction)

I started out with secondhand paper copies, but quickly moved to ebooks as they're always right at hand (phone or tablet) and quickly searchable. The Ricklef book is now the only one I still read in paper.
 

The Happy Squirrel

"Tarot for Yourself" :) I went for a reading and had a strong feeling that it was a filtered advice that I was getting and not an actual reading. So I was determined to find out for myself what the cards were actually saying :) Wish I had bought the physical book though. E book can be a bit tricky to use when learning something instructional on them :)