Scion
Well, I'm about a third of the way into a full book on the Decans. I just haven't had the time to finish it yet. And I don't know if I'm an ocean of anything other than questions and opinions. But I'm happy to rant about books as much as you'd like...daphne said:
As for the kinds of books I prefer: I want fresh ideas. I want content. I want footnotes. I want history. I want structural awareness and the ability to find real connections between topics. I want breathtaking leaps of imagination. I want articulation and wit. I want some magic and madness. I want something that doesn't seem like a New Age regurgitation run through a foodprocessor with a thesaurus. I want something that doesn't have me instinctively reaching for a red pen every five minutes to copyedit.
If there are wild theorizing or bizarre theories then they'd better be supported and dazzling and I'd better not recognize the ideas as something stated better, earlier by other folks. The Underground Stream by Payne-Towler is flat-out shameful and silly and sloppy, not because the ideas are wacky but because the arguments and research are so pitiful. Place's Tarot is GREAT on the TdM and history of the trumps, then rocky as hell in the tacked-on Waite-Smith section (for reasons involving his publisher more than anything). But Bob knows his stuff and his book has become something of an instant classic; Payne-Towler's book isn't fit for a litter box. (For what it's worth, I've been told that even she has disavowed a lot of the mess on display in this.) Decker and Dummett's meaty books are bitchy if enthralling, and there aren't really better overviews of divinatory Tarot History than History of the Occult Tarot and (with DePaulis) Wicked Pack of Cards.
Inattention and laziness and bores the shit out of me. I loathe books that retread the same topics in the same ways over and over. If I read another Llewellyn introduction to Tarot that gives a quickie history and then fluffy boilerplate meanings with E-Z symbols refs I'll cut my wrists. If you are providing meanings then know where they come from! Huson's Mystical Origins and Wang's Qabalistic Tarot and Butler's Dictionary are fantastic in this regard. Just as Joan Bunning and Eden Gray's books are not. Gray was important as a point of popular access in the timeline, but the meanings are like rusty cogs and her bullshit Fool's Journey folderol CONTINUES to mislead people in the weirdest directions. Still, Gray's books have been a gateway to many peopel who haunt used bookstores and Bunning generously unleashed her (weirdly rigid) curriculum gratis on the web... Valuable contributions both and worthy of praise.
IMO, if people are writing about a specific deck (Thoth, TdM, Etteilla) I expect some scholarship and attention to detail. Know your material and if you don't then don't write about it. So a big YES to Suster and Snuffin and Duquette on Crowley
, a big embarassed NO to Arrien and Wagner who should be ashamed of their intellectual dishonesty and opportunism... 
Also, I believe companion books should be BOOKS and not just LWBs on steroids. The Sakki-Sakki companion is genius, as is Robin Wood's witty behind-the-scenes tome... both of these are worth reading even if you don't own the relevant decks. I wish more deck creators were as ruthless and attentive and witty as these two ladies.The tricky thing is, because of the economies of specialty publishing, most books ON Tarot are pretty limited in scope. Most things are written for the lowest common denominator so there are LOTS of books for weak-kneed beginners and dabblers who prefer soundbites to real content. (Boy does that sound bitchy, but you know what I mean, I hope) I can't think of the last time I picked up a book that was Tarot-specific that really kicked my ass. Intros always sell best and anything too weird or difficult gets shunted to the side, so I find myself hunting farther afield to get at the material I find most useful. Also, since a lot of my own research around Tarot centers on medieval astrology I find that a lot of my best Tarot books are coming out of ARHAT and the Warburg Institute. Again, those are only gonna work for me because of my own madness... And please know that I do know it's madness.
At the moment, the books that have been affecting me the most that might appeal to other folks... On the Psychology of Military Incompetence which I had recommended to me by two friends and in Frawley's astrological articles. Thrilling and hilarious. I'm once again rereading Cornelius' Moment of Astrology and loving his thoughts about divination as a mode of human behavior. And I just picked up a slim book by Dale Pendell: The Language of Birds which is about exactly that, and by extension divination of all stripes. I'm alternately charmed and annoyed by the form but I'm definitely enjoying it. Promethea for the umpteenth time. Oh and I'm halfway into a pitiless book on sexuality and the witch trials called Demon Lovers which is like bitter/fresh scholasticism with a creepy center. None of these books are about Tarot, but all of them are ultimately feeding into the way I read.
I have no idea if I've answered your question, and hope that all this ranting hasn't irked anyone. But I've gone on quite long enough.
S
