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Rating: 
Summary: The book has potential, but.......
Review: For me the Everything Tarot Book was a first insite into the world of the tarot. It explains what each card means, how it relates to astrology, how to use ten differant spreads, and a number of other things. This book is a wonderful book to begin with, and is easy to use, and understand.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome book for anyone, new or beginning....
Review: I agree with the reviewer that said the editing of this book was dreadful. Ms. Abadie should be furious with the editing job that was done and looking for new editors/publishers. It was definately amateur hour in the editor's office. However, the material was lovely. Ms. Abadie presented everything so clearly. I liked that she mixed the reading of the cards up with using the cards for meditation. It opened new doors for me. A beginner can use the sections of the book they find most helpful, then as they progress they can explore other avenues with their cards. I have not read the book cover to cover, but rather have jumped all around as needs, questions, and curiosities arose. I highly recommend the book despite the editing.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great, Easy Tarot Book For Beginners
Review: I too, am a newcomer to the world of the Tarot, but this book is great. It's easy to understand, it's positive, and it even includes meditations and spiritual guidences to enhance your readings.The only draw back to this is that the editors of this book did a horrible job presenting it, and therefore I agree with most of the reviewers when this is brought up. The example I found on this was page 84, second paragrapgh, where it reads "(See Chapter 4 for descriptions of the Court Cards as representational of people.)" The editors changed it, putting the Trumps in Chapter 4 and Chapter 8 actually displays the information. All in all, I would say that this is one of the best books for beginners out there, despite the bad editing job (I hope Ms. Abadie finds a better publisher, for the Adams Media Publishers gave it no justice what so ever). I give it four stars only for the editing job, but the content truly deserves five stars. If you can look past that, you're on your way to learning the Tarot fast and easy. Now, some may think that this book has 'misinformation,' but there is a difference between misinformation and opinions. Misinformation is that. It would be like telling someone that the Tarot can be played like playing cards, which we all know is not true. On the other hand, everyone has their own opionion, their own interpetation, of how the tarot works. This book is not misinformation, but an opinion from one person's view about the Tarot and the messages the cards give. While to some it may not click, to others, it might. You just have to see for yourself if the book, as with all books on this subject, is right for you. The truth is, there is no 'right way' or 'wrong way' to interpet the Tarot, and even Ms. Abadie says that herself. The Tarot, over time, becomes personalized to you, and your interpetations will differ from others. Like all divination tools, it's a 'to each his own' basis. After all, if everyone interpeted the Tarot one way, how would it tell you 'your future?' The only way the Tarot can can truly tell your future is by what oneself feels is right. It all comes down to one person, and that is you. Whether you agree to one book or another, its your choice, as long as you do not abuse the readings or harm others in doing so.
Rating:
Summary: a great book, no matter how long you've been studying tarot
Review: In my current studies of the tarot, I've looked through several books on the subject. All of them had good information. However, I felt this book covered the "basics" much better than other books I've read. From the book's beginning, where it tells you how to interpret your cards and how to handle them, through Part II (The Major Arcana), which contains chapters on Symbolic Interpretation & Astrological Correspondences of the Major Arcana, and using the Major Arcana as trump cards in a reading, to Part III (descriptions of the Minor Arcana in general, and descriptions of each suit), to Part IV (doing a reading), it contains a wealth of information. I especially liked the different meanings behind the Major Arcana cards, as well as the chapter on various card spreads (horseshoe, horoscope, seven-card spread, etc). Up until now, I mostly had only known of the Traditional Celtic Cross spread. It's nice to know there are others as well. The book also contains brief descriptions of what each individual number card and court cards means. That is also helpful in doing a reading. It's obvious to me in reading this book that the author put a lot of work into writing it and is serious about the accuracy of the information contained within it. Well worth buying if you wish to learn more about The Tarot. I do agree with other reviewers about the editing. It mars an otherwise excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: The book has potential, but.......
Review: The editing of the 1999 version of this book is awful. I tend to think that the author never re-read the book after the editors were done with it, and that the editors had something else on their minds other than reading the book for errors. The editing was so bad, that it caused me to doubt the accuracy of everything else the author had to say. The first error starts on page xiv (the Introduction to the book), where the first part of a paragraph is simply left out....VANISHED! It is an error that is very obvious because that paragraph starts with a lower-case letter, and obviously starts in the middle of a sentence. In the course of reading the book, I found many misplaced words, items left out, etc. For example, on page 254, the author gives a sample reading of what potentially could be a very good spread, but then mis-numbers the cards in the spread, mis-names one of the positions, and then leaves one of the cards out entirely. The author's writing style is very readable, and she is apparently a very talented writer, but it's almost as if the publishing company was trying to crank out a tarot book as quickly as possible in order to get in on what they perceived to be a "New Age Craze". I don't know if the problems were caused by sloppy proofreading on the part of the author, sloppy editing on the part of the editors, or the greed and haste of Adams Media, but all I can say is, "If you are a novice, don't buy the book until the problems are fixed." Luckily for me, this was not the first tarot book I had read.
Rating:
Summary: This book touches on everything about the tarot
Review: This book explains the tarot, the history behind tarot, as well as astrological references, Numerology, includes 10 spreads, tips and ways to shuffle and clear your deck by earth, air, fire or water.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting out with the Tarot. The text is easily understood by anyone!
Rating:
Summary: A Positive Approach to Tarot
Review: This book has some definite pros and cons. I picked this up with another book. The other one was sort of similar, in that both take a very positive approach to reading the cards, which is what I was in search of. I skimed the other one, and just grabbed this one bought them both and dove into this one first. The book does give some interesting information about tarot, and as far as book-meanings of the cards, these are very acurate, very positive, very helpful definitions, and gives just as detailed meanings of reverse dignified cards as the dignified (upright) cards. Also a nice feature, is that each discription page has a picture of the card from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.(although a monochromatic green scan of it, it does help to see it on the page.) There are some side-notes on the cards which are helpful and random information here and there which is nice. As mentioned in previous customer reviews of the book, the editing is badly done, and is a very unprofessional feature. If they had spent as much time proofing the book, as they had decorating every page with borders and clip art this might not have been an issue at all. As far as spreads go, the description of the celtic cross spread differs a little from many that I've read in the short time i've been studying tarot, and the card position descriptions are terribly vague. A helpful spread that I hadn't seen before is the one-card yes/no spread. One final annoyance in the book is the author's constant "plugging" of her other publications. She begins to hint that to be able to read tarot you need to do something, and then explains how you can learn all about how to do that by reading her other books. All-in-all this book does have is cons, but there are the pros, too, and if you're new to tarot, as I am, it does give a good, postive, and un-terrifying approach to card meanings and how they can help you grow and that's a good thing. Its not terribly expensive and so I recomend it for that reason. But I also suggest picking up another book of your choice as well. Good luck.
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