Possibly the Worst Book Ever

Hi Mark Lewis here. Nice to meet you all.

I suppose I had better explain myself. Yes. I hate that book too! I cringe whenever I see it advertised on the internet! The truth of the matter is I did not write it although as will be explained in a moment I did supply the information. I did not publish it , make no profit from it and the supposed introductory text was not written by me although it is has been represented as such. And I like to think I can spell a lot better! The fact of the matter is that when the book came out it was a complete surprise to me and in fact I was quite amused by it! Alas the amusement has worn off a trifle now.

Here are the facts of the matter. Have you ever seen those machines at fairs and exhibitions which supposedly tell your fortune? There are palm reading machines, astrology machines and yes, tarot machines. Some sort of computer print outs are generated when you pay your money and enter your information. I don't know how they work or how valid they are. I suspect not that valid at all but I really have no idea. People who pay money for these things are quite aware that it is for entertainment only and they walk away reading the stuff and have a good laugh about it.

It is miles away from a serious Tarot session by an experienced spiritual practicioner and I dare say some of you might even have been a customer of one of those things for the amusement of it rather than any actual serious belief in it. A bit like newspaper horoscopes come to think of it.

One day the owner of one of those machines approached me because of my knowledge of palmistry and the tarot to supply information for the machines. He said that the information he used at the time was not that accurate and he wanted something better. I balked at first but he offered a goodly sum of money so I complied. This was back in the early nineties. I wrote specific palmistry meanings which would apply to certain age groups and did the same with the tarot. I would emphasise that they were valid meanings for each card which would come up in certain positions and valid accepted palmistry definitions for the lines on the hand.

The transaction was done and I agreed that he had the rights to the material. In 1998 he astonished me by putting out a book based on all the information I had given him. That is the book under discussion. In fact he put out two books, one on palmistry and one on tarot. I was not happy at the huckster type way he presented the material and references to how much money could be made. And these amounts were highly exaggerated. If I could really earn the amounts quoted I would be a very rich man! That is why I was so amused at the outright hype of it all.

Anyway it seems that he sold the rights of the books to someone else and I have no idea who. And that is the complete story. To sum it up, I didn't write it, I didn't make the spelling mistakes and I didn't publish it. And I have no idea who has the rights to it nowadays.

I am a serious psychic reader who is very well respected. I specialise in palmistry and the tarot and am very active in psychic fairs and do hour long private sessions in Toronto, Canada. If I can help any of you or answer any questions I will be happy to do so.

I am glad I can speak to you here and address any of your concerns.

Mark Lewis

Oh, and I didn't write the horrendous advertising copy on Goodreads either! That made me CRINGE!

Welcome Mark, come in, sit awhile, join in the conversation, we are nice people as long as no one is dissing our beloved tarot

You might think about putting your own review up at Amazon

Thank you AJ. I consider Tarot cards to be the most powerful divination tool known to man. I learned how to do it properly from a wonderful book called Tarotmania by Jan Woudhuysen. I have sometimes seen the book entitled "Tarot Therapy". In any event I think the book is out of print now although I have heard that it can be accessed free of charge on the Internet somewhere.

I use Prediction Tarot which alas is out of production now and I wish I could get another pack somewhere. This deck was put out by Prediction Magazine in England but is no longer available. I have one deck and I wish I had purchased a spare. Hopefully it will last as long as I will.

Oh Mark - what a ghastly tale.

As to the deck - you have PM.... It MIGHT cheer you up !

Mark Lewis said:

Anyway it seems that he sold the rights of the books to someone else and I have no idea who. And that is the complete story. To sum it up, I didn't write it, I didn't make the spelling mistakes and I didn't publish it. And I have no idea who has the rights to it nowadays.

Mark Lewis

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Mark! Nice to meet you! Always nice to meet another Tarot author! BTW - if you can't stop them from publishing this book that is trashing your reputation - can you write a review for Amazon where you 'dis-avow' the book and explain what you just said here - and also complain of the poor quality of the book? It only seems a fair thing to do ...

wow, Mark! I can well see that the humour in that would indeed wear off pretty quickly.

Wow Mark, speaking of unfortunate! I can imagine it is slightly painful to have your name attached to a book that isn't received in a positive way and -worse- you didn't write!

I hope everyone gets the chance to read your comment, I wouldn't hesitate to explain what happened in the review section of the websites selling it, either

Hi there. First I want to thank Gregory for his private message. I will certainly check out what he said.

As for me reviewing it personally I will certainly consider it. What worries me is that this may bring more attention to it and oddly enough it could end up selling even more as a result! The public's way of thinking can be quite bizarre at times!

Another thing is that I am still on friendly terms with the original publisher whom I met recently after a few years. He told me he was no longer selling my material although I think he may still have the original stuff in his machines. I told him that if he was no longer selling it perhaps he could remove the advertising of the book. He then told me that he had sold the rights to the material to someone else. Because I have been on good terms with him I have not had any desire to write reviews on the book. However, now that he has sold the material to someone else whom I have no relationship with I may well consider following the advice here on the matter.

I will have to think about it.

Mark Lewis said:

Hi there. First I want to thank Gregory for his private message. I will certainly check out what he said.

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Welcome Mark! Despite the screen name, gregory is a she.