New Book??

Barleywine

I forgot about Angeles Arrien because I was warned off it by AT'ers before I bought it, so haven't read it and doubt I will. Snuffin I intend to buy soon; my impression from comments is that it falls somewhere in DuQuette territory. Hughes-Barlow has a useful website and I may get to his book eventually. Seckler is new to me. I may just have to buy this new book simply to satisfy my "gold standard" curiosity, as long as the buzz doesn't turn completely rabid against it.
 

smw

I forgot about Angeles Arrien because I was warned off it by AT'ers before I bought it, so haven't read it and doubt I will. Snuffin I intend to buy soon; my impression from comments is that it falls somewhere in DuQuette territory. Hughes-Barlow has a useful website and I may get to his book eventually. Seckler is new to me. I may just have to buy this new book simply to satisfy my "gold standard" curiosity, as long as the buzz doesn't turn completely rabid against it.

I find Snuffin good to dip in to and check ( beginners perspective, may not be so good for you) There is little introduction or background chapters. It is mostly the cards, their descriptions and symbolism, quite concise and helpful I think.

He kind of feels reliable that if you checked the info he gives it would be on target.
 

Barleywine

I find Snuffin good to dip in to and check ( beginners perspective, may not be so good for you) There is little introduction or background chapters. It is mostly the cards, their descriptions and symbolism, quite concise and helpful I think.

He kind of feels reliable that if you checked the info he gives it would be on target.


ETA Although I am interested in creative interpretations of the Thoth cards I like to get a sense that an author really knows and understands the Thoth well before veering off and I didn't really get that impression with the book of the thread. Describing the High Priestess's curtains didn't really inspire me... or some of the other basic descriptions of the cards. However, that is only a quick look with a few extracts.

Thanks! You've just enabled me on Snuffin, which is exactly the sort of quick, reliable reference material I'm looking for. I'm going to reserve judgment on this self-styled "Ultimate Guide" until more people have it in their hands, either here or among the Amazon review community, since I would hate to arbitrarily discard something that might be useful in my library.
 

smw

Thanks! You've just enabled me on Snuffin, which is exactly the sort of quick, reliable reference material I'm looking for. I'm going to reserve judgment on this self-styled "Ultimate Guide" until more people have it in their hands, either here or among the Amazon review community, since I would hate to arbitrarily discard something that might be useful in my library.

yes, agreed reviews from others who actually have the book would be more helpful. I tend to think with my nose sometimes on limited information.
 

Babalon Jones

Using Amazon's "Look Inside" the book feature, it doesn't really look like my cup of tea. Something about the format reminds me of a magazine article, the kind where they want "lite" reading. I may be too hasty though and forming a snap judgment.
 

Barleywine

Using Amazon's "Look Inside" the book feature, it doesn't really look like my cup of tea. Something about the format reminds me of a magazine article, the kind where they want "lite" reading. I may be too hasty though and forming a snap judgment.

Hmm, now you've got me thinking. This could have started out as blog posts or on-line articles that got corraled into a book. It's been done before, perhaps most famously with Crowley's Gems from the Equinox. These efforts don't often jell convincingly since it really requires a strong unifying jolt of high-caliber editorial intervention to pull it together (sadly lacking in today's self-publishing frenzy). But, again, I'm trying to analyze what is essentially "vaporware" until I get it into my hands. I'm not holding my breath, though.
 

Zephyros

I've read the previews and I had written a whole post about it, with examples, but then my browser died and I couldn't resurrect the post. Bottom line, awful, just awful. Horrible syntax which may be the result of a bad translation job but large parts of it are completely unintelligible. I was willing to overlook the odd quirk, but when you can't understand entire paragraphs you know there's a problem, or else I don't know English.

From the table of contents it appears that the first twenty pages don't deal with the Thoth at all, but Tarot basics. That's fine, just seems a lot to slog through. The section on astrology seems reasonable, and I like the table, but (and this is if I actually understood anything) they say that the Golden Dawn was in Amagansett, New York? Why? Where? Where did they get that from?

Nowhere did I see any mention of the deck's background, structure, what it is, explanation, nothing. Crowley himself I saw mentioned exactly once. The preview is so boorish, ignorant, badly written and amateurish that I can't see it improving once it gets to the actual cards.

Anyway, unless the tone in the rest of the book radically changes, it seems like just a run-of-the-mill Tarot book that just happens to use Thoth illustrations. I don't need to see the rest of the book, and I wouldn't recommend anyone get this. Ugh, just terrible. Don't get this, seriously, it will only encourage publishers to put out more of this trash. I can't understand how it ever got to print.

I might be very, very wrong. In fact I hope I am, but I will be very surprised if I am.
 

Babalon Jones

Anyway, unless the tone in the rest of the book radically changes, it seems like just a run-of-the-mill Tarot book that just happens to use Thoth illustrations. I don't need to see the rest of the book, and I wouldn't recommend anyone get this. Ugh, just terrible. Don't get this, seriously, it will only encourage publishers to put out more of this trash. I can't understand how it ever got to print.

I'm surprised they got permission to use the illustrations, for something like this.
 

Richard

I usually pass (at least temporarily) when a book is hyped as being "ultimate" or "complete" or "everything you wanted to know" or the like; and I wait for reviews from people whose opinions I respect.