Lo Scarabeo's Encyclopedia - love it or leave it?

[Ealasaid Enfys]

I accidentally came upon Lo Scarabeo's 3 part Encyclopedia (Fundamentals/Experience/Compendium). What attracted me was the artwork and the volume I must say *drool*. I like big books and I cannot lie. ☺️ You can get a glimpse from the inside, but not enough to determine wether it's worth it to spend money on. I can imagine since it's published by a publisher specialised in all things tarot that it's not. I haven't seen it on any lists as recommended either.
Does somebody have a copy?

 

[TheFeeLion]

Ooo I've been eyeing this up too and would be curious to know what others think of it... 

[gregory]

I have it. It has a lot in that most of us here already know - but of course you have to allow for total newbies.

 

I like it - my big objection is the amount of white space and the use of stock photos all over the place - I hate them, but I am also acutely aware that to sell something like this they are almost required. You don't get the sales with what I like - plain text with NECESSARY pictures only !

 

I got it for rather less than they are asking on amazon, though - it was on kickstarter, and I think backers paid 29 euros per volume, with free delivery. I think I might wait till it shows up used, being as I am a pennypincher at times .... but I am glad I have it. If you buy them all from LoS, you would qualify for free postage, though.

 

Any specific questions ?

[gregory]

Here are some links to the KS campaigns 

 

 

 Annoyingly the contents and chapter links no longer work... but you can see more than in some places....

[Ealasaid Enfys]

I just signed in on LoS and you're right, shipping is free.

You say it doesn't have new information in it - or not much. So I guess it won't be worth it for me. I don't want to buy just to buy. Like I don't want to buy a cookbook for that one recipe. Usually I read parts of book on books.google and they go on my to buy-list if they give me new insights on symbolism, card combinations, excercises I can do.

 

I think I'll leave it for now. It goes on the list but first there are other books to buy.

 

Thanks for the info, Gregory.

Edited July 11, 2020 by Ealasaid Enfys

[katrinka]

2 hours ago, gregory said:

my big objection is the amount of white space

I don't have it, and I'm not really tempted...but what IS it with all the white space in books these days?
I don't mind a little - a half page at the end of a chapter is a handy place for notes - but publishing has gone white space crazy when it comes to Tarot/cartomancy. It's such a waste, it makes books that should be slim volumes bulky, but there's no actual meat to them. Save the trees. people! 🙄

Edited July 11, 2020 by katrinka

[gregory]

It's what most people seem to want. It's depressing., They can't seem to handle pure text. I've had ordinary people be surprised to see me reading a book on a train or something - and say - but there are no pictures. I want to imagine my characters myself, thank you.

 

I suspect it ties in with the idea (which is very common among adults and NOT TRUE) - that children have a teeny weeny attention span. Sure they stop watching TV  shows quite fast, very often - but that's probably because so much of the TV made for them is mind-numbingly boring., Watch a child examining every last stone on the driveway with rapt attention, or sorting a great bin of buttons in 6 different ways - they can do that kind of thing for HOURS.

[Barleywine]

I have the same problem with blog sites that are all hot buttons on the home page and no text. You have to drill down through all that to actually read something (once you figure out which one it's hiding under).

[katrinka]

27 minutes ago, Barleywine said:

I have the same problem with blog sites that are all hot buttons on the home page and no text. You have to drill down through all that to actually read something (once you figure out which one it's hiding under).

I suspect at least some of those are aff links.
And they remind me of clickbait sites, too. You know the ones: you can't just read the articles, they have to be viewed photo by photo, with one photo per page: "These hikers jumped off a cliff. You won't believe what happened next!"
Totally not worth the effort of investigating.

[Morsoth]

I have all three and love them for the content. However, like many, I'm not a fan of the "textbook" design with random stock pictures and empty spaces. Also, in many places, they uses the Universal Tarot (that I really don't like) and would have preferred if they could have used the Rider-Waite instead.

 

Lastly, be aware that there is a lot of typos in the books, typos that could have been easily avoided if they had used a spellcheck... I'm French and I could spot many of these. That said, I'm happy to have them on my bookshelves, especially the third book which is more 'advanced'.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Morsoth