MissChiff
Has anyone heard about The Ultimate Guide to the Thoth Tarot by Johannas Fiebig? I think it really new...
I will be interested in seeing where it falls on the "utilitarian" scale between the Book of Thoth and Ziegler's Mirror of the Soul/Banzhaf's The Crowley Tarot. I thought DuQuette's book was too academic (and a bit like "Bud Lite") to be a really useful "nuts & bolts" tool for penetrating into the fascinating minutiae of the deck (what I like to call a "can opener" or maybe in the case of the Thoth, a "nut cracker").
That isn't really the purpose of the book. That would be far to big a pretension, and no book except the BoT can make that claim (and even that has a few holes in it). UACTT serves mainly to get you in the door, to teach you the deck's basic language. In that, I think it fulfills its purpose beautifully. For me it got me in the door, then I took a step back and spent something like six months studying nothing but Qabalah, then came back to Duquette and to Crowley himself with more informed eyes.
As for the new book... groan... not another "ultimate" book. Will the use of over the top superlatives never cease?
Yes, I fully understand and appreciate DuQuette's purpose; for the neophyte it does succeed admirably. That was simply my reaction to it after spending most of a lifetime with the original source material. It just didn't leave much of it's own "flavor" behind, at least for me.
As a complete layman to the Thoth what book recommendation would suit a beginner. It would need to be any easy read, not too academic, l am of an age where information slowly trickles in LOL!
You should start with a good overview like the Lon Milo DuQuette book we've been discussing: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot. It can still get a little "deep," but for the most part it's very well written and accessible. I would stay away from the other two I mentioned, and of course the Book of Thoth itself is no place to start unless you're REALLY tenacious.
ETA: There are also some excellent web-sites that deliver it in manageable bits.