The worst tarot books you have come across

So far the worst in my collection is "The Tarot" by Joseph Maxwell, and some ppl think he's pretty good but I've skimmed it and put it away thinking:
I was just desparate for something in English on Marseille at the time...

Shalott said:

I was just desparate for something in English on Marseille at the time...

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This would be me.

The worst for me was buying Tarot Decoder by Kathleen McCormick. The book's set up is fantastic, which led me to believe that I had found a book that was going to go in depth with the Marseille deck, in English. Silly, silly me. It used RW meanings. I had been looking for a book in English so hard and long that I was completely enraged!

Oh well. Live and learn.

Its nice to see so many people adding their own thoughts to horrible books. It's nice to know I'm not the only who has tarot books that suck.

I'm sure some will disagree, but for me, Tarot Made Easy, by Nancy Garen, just didn't work. It's one of those books that made me think, "OMG, I'll NEVER learn this in a zillion years!"

If you're looking for something specific ("How does this card pertain to my job search?"), then it can certainly be helpful, but it is NOT a book to make learning the tarot "easy," as its name implies. It's more a book for those who DON'T want to learn the tarot but still want to be able to do readings for themselves.

I've read, on another forum, that there are mistakes in the astrological connections in this book, too. I haven't confirmed that myself.

Forest of Souls

I know this crops up in the best books category usually, but I would put Rachel Pollack's "Forest of Souls" in this category.

I liked what she had to say about time in the very early part of the book but little else. It surprised me since I like her two books on the Haindl tarot so well.

I doubt if I'll ever read another of her books. Perhaps my tastes have just changed.

darwinia, what did you dislike about the book Forest of Souls exactly? I am thinking of buying it and I want to hear both sides of the reviews

How about a book that's good whose *illustriations* suck?? My first-ever book on Tarot, bought long ago in college. "The Tarot" by Alfred Douglas has some wonderful prose & is written from a Jungian perspective - just *my* cup 'o' tea! - but these illustrations are from a non-existant, evidently (probably just as well!) Tarot deck with truly *weird* illustrations. There are all kinds of departures from the Rider-Waite, & they are singular to a fault. They have a touch of the Carnival-like - the Page of batons is a fire-breather, there is another one - the 4 of Swords - where there are these men playing chess outside of a tent (perhaps that's "Ren-Faire"-like). The 3 of swords has a pattern of 3 disembodied arms holding the swords in formation. The 9 of batons shows a kind of green-man with a vine climbing up him. The 3 of batons has this big dolphin that dominates the picture. Somebody named David Sheridan is responsible for these monstrosities.

The Majors are more or less standard, but boy! - these Minors are for the birds! The meanings are correspondingly bizarre, BTW.

Just thought I'd mention it!

(Rather an old book, first published in the '70's [and BOY does it show!!] by Penguin.)

BTW - this thread made me laugh aloud!!

Auroramyst said:

I'm sure some will disagree, but for me, Tarot Made Easy, by Nancy Garen, just didn't work.

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Totally agree with you Auroramyst!

It does seem that the point to this one is not to bother learning at all. Just pull the cards, find the page number and read the definition 'parrot fashion'. I did look at it occasionally to see if I could relate certain things she said to the said card and wonder how she had come to that conclusion, but aside from that, it hasn't been any use to me. Having said that, if you have a set of colouring pencils, you could always spend a couple of hours colouring in the illustrations.

Some of the stuff in it just seemed so specific - can't remember actual examples but things like 'this card means you are going to get a letter from the bank' or 'today is a good day to buy a pleated skirt' ... erm, why? erm, how? Was just joking about the 'skirt', but some of the definitions are that crazy.

Hopefully, I am not offending anybody by damning this book but out of the collection of books I own, to my memory, this is the least useful.

Yaboot

I have to agree with Auroramyst and Yaboot's comments about Garen's Tarot Made Easy. I felt the same way about her Tarot According to You book.
They just didn't work at all for me. Perhaps partially because I am not a Swords-Fire/Wands-Air person.