Woa. Lots of people apparently really like Learning the Tarot. I understand it's a great book, and that it works for many people, but I completely didn't connect with it, and even considered giving up on tarot cards when I was a beginner based upon how little I was getting out of them when I was working with the book. It was too cut and dried for me, too utilitarian, too something. I'm not bashing it, understand. I understand it works for just about everybody.
I'm severely dyslexic, and Joan Bunnings approach just didn't work for me. Maybe because of the way I learn, I needed an approach that allowed me to get a more intuitive understanding of the cards while at the same time allowing me to look up the intention behind the symbolism. The combination of books that worked for me ended up being:
The Complete Tarot Reader, which focusses on working with the cards to come up with your own meanings of the cards.
78 Degrees of Wisdom, which was good for when I wanted to know what the intention behind certain symbolism was.
The book that went with the deck I was working with at the moment, which, as Talisman said, might be problematic for some people.
And, because I'm a historian, and really like knowing where something has been to know where it's going, I really didn't feel like I'd started understanding tarot until I'd read a book on tarot history.
But then, I understand I learn very differently from most people...
K