This is timely since I'm just wading back into professional face-to-face reading after decades away from it (in fact, today is my debut). I've read (and in some cases reread) dozens of tarot books over the years, but they have almost all been more about theory and practice than about professional comportment. For me, it's as much about style and flair (what I like to call "the theater of tarot" as a performing art) as it is about sober technique and the mechanics of "getting it done." The story-teller's art is where I try to put the imaginative "flesh on the bones" of my academic and intutive understanding of the cards.
Come to think of it, the best books to sharpen those skills may not be about tarot at all, once the intricacies of reading for others have been thoroughly absorbed. (Of course, it may be different if all your reading is done over the internet; for me, reading is a dialogue, not a monologue.) Anyway, Holistic Tarot was already on my wish-list, and I already have Elias and Louis (which has useful example readings). Someone here recommended Tarot for Life by Paul Quinn, which does have many real-life examples of his professional readings, but I stalled on it because of its "New-Age-y" feel.
