Don't bother with these books!

The following are books that individual pagans/heathens have found to be unhelpful, full of bad information, or misrepresenting the subject matter.  Of course, it is always up to you whether or not  to read any given material, but these are suggestions.  If you want to add books to this list, please email the site owner with "PD Bad Books" in the subject line and give the information in the format shown below.

Main  ~  Reading List

Book:  The Dark God: Exploring the Male Shadow by Marcia Starck
Why I don't like it:  It does not give much information about any of the deities it talks about, nor does it provide any new or thought-provoking discussion.  There are other books that deal with each of the figures in this book, but which do so much more competently.
Suggested alternate reading:  I really don't know of any single book that covers the male shadow aspect well.  There are other books that cover male deities, and do it well, but not as a compilation centered on dark masculine aspects.

Author: Ralph Blum  (all works)
Why I don't like his works: For the most part, his work ignores most traditional lore - he makes up his own order for the runes, and makes up a new stone ( a blank stone ) which has no basis in tradition, and makes no sense within the culture.

Book:  21 Lessons of Merlyn by Douglas Monroe
Why I don't like it: It is misogynistic in the extreme, which is not Druidical.  It ignores available texts which are truly historical and touts a patriarchal, monotheistic perspective more like that of the Knights Templar than either ancient or modern Druidry.  And it contradicts known historical information.
Suggested alternate reading:  Anything on Druidry by Philip Carr-Gomm, Louis Spence, or John and Caitlin Matthews

Book:  Faery Wicca Books 1 & 2   by Kisma Stepanich
Why I don't like them:  Unattributed quotations from the works of other people, and lots of sloppy research resulting in downright inaccuracies, historical, mythic, and logical.
Suggested alternate reading:  Anything on the Feri (Faery) Tradition by Victor or Cora Anderson, or Francesca de Grandis.

Book:   Red Moon: Understanding and Using the Gifts of the Menstrual Cycle   by Miranda Gray
Why I don't like it: The author twists stories and traditions to meet her perspective with no regard for their original meaning, yet claiming that her misinterpretations are the original meanings.  One example of this is her feminization of the maypole, an obvious phallic symbol.  This book seems to be a feminist revisionism with little regard to fact.  She cites no sources for her far-fetched inventions, not surprisingly.
Suggested alternate reading: Honoring Menstruation by Lara Owen

Author:   E. A. Wallis Budge (all works)

Why I don't like them: I don't recommend any books by Budge on the Egyptian line because he didn't do the work on most of his books; his students did and he took credit.  This is what I have heard from our leader the Nisut.  So we don't follow any of Budge's books as Kemetic orthodoxy.

Book:   Memetic Magic: Manipulation of the Root Social Matrix and the Fabric of Reality  by Kirk Packwood
Why I don't like them: A bad presentation of other people's ideas. The tie-in to "Memetics" is the same kind of device used by authors who write about "Quantum" this and that (most of whom have as little understanding of physics as Packwood does of Memetics); but at least Quantum Mechanics is a real scientific theory with predictive power and significant implications, whereas Memetics was an idea tossed off by Gerald Dawkins which has never borne significant fruit. The editing is abysmal to the point of infuriating the literate reader.  The one distinctive method explored in this book, automatic drawing, is already associated with Austin Osman Spare.  All that said, I do actually like Packwood's graphical work, and I can see how it could be charged as he intends. I am dismissing the book, not the author.

Suggested alternate reading: The works of Austin Osman Spare, Peter Carroll, and Phil Hine.

Author:   Fiona Horne (all works)

Why I don't like them:  She writes to a Wiccan audience - teenage girls in particular.  She commercializes the religion.  She's a professed atheist - don't expect to find many religious truths in her books.  In her works, Wiccan ethics are an afterthought.