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well wen i have Time from my 60 hr work week, i'll peak at them gonk

Over the years I have read and critiqued the books of a variety of authors. The following is a list of authors that I personally do not recommend as good sources on Wicca or Paganism in general.

Kisma Stepanich - her books were found to be plagarized from another author and the publisher was forced to pull them from bookstores. But you'll still find copies out there. http://www.geocities.com/ferigold/truthfaery/index.html

Silver Ravenwolf: Encourages kids to lie to their parents about what they are doing, teaches curses and hexes, has a pretty strong anti-Christian bias. But for a good summary of the problems with her, take a look at this essay. http://wicca.timerift.net/ravenwolf.html

Fiona Horne - Got into this for the publicity. She admits that she isn't even a Pagan. Again, here's an essay on this author. http://wicca.timerift.net/horne.html

Raven Grimassi - I have known Raven on-line since back in the old Compuserve BBS days. Back then he was claiming to be Strega and looking down on all us Wiccan types because we didn't have long histories. Then the Strega came along and pretty well forced him to stop using a title he hadn't earned..hence his writings are now called Italian Witchcraft instead of Strega. Now he has set himself up as an authority on Wicca but is buying into the myths of the 'ancient' religion and the Burning Times.

Ann Moura - Tried to rewrite history to prove that Wicca is an ancient religion again! And she has a clearly anti-Christian bias in her books that bothers me.

D.J. Conway - Basically all her books are the same with the names changed to protect the guilty. Her books are full of inaccuracies, such as her book on Celtic Magic which discusses Karma and the Celts. Karma is an eastern concept and was not one that the Celts ever used. She also buys into the Great Potato Fallacy, claiming that the ancient Celts worshipped the potato as a symbol of the Goddess. The fact that the potato is a New World veggie and didn't get to Ireland until nearly 1600 (long after Ireland was thoroughly Christianized) never seemed to cross her mind.

Edain McCoy - Also a purveyor of the Great Potato Fallacy. She is the inventor of 'Witta' which she tried to claim was the ancient Irish form of Wicca. It isn't. The name she called this tradition by is one that would not have been found in any Celtic language. It is simply Wicca given a made up name. The one book of hers that I thought was worth much at all is "Inside a Wiccan Coven" where she is writing about her own experiences and not about anything that took a bit of scholarship.

Douglas Monroe - Very poor scholarship. His works on Druidry bear little resemblance to the known practices of the historical Druids, and even less to what is known about the Celts in general. Mr. Monroe is also a convicted *****.

Konstantinos - His books are a flagrant attempt to market to the Goth crowd. There is nothing in them that isn't covered better by other authors.

Gerina Dunwich - Lots and lots of fluff without a whole lot of substance. Many better authors out there to chose from, at least in my opinion.

I suppose one can learn something from almost any book, but the works of these particular authors require so much unlearning later because of the errors they contain that it is probably better just to spend your money on better books and save the time later to learn it right.

Hope this helps,

-Lark-

Do not 'avoid' any authors.

It is far better to read and judge for yourself. Every author and every book has something worthwhile in it, even if that worthwhile gem you get out of it is learning about yourself by what you disagree with. Look at why people label an author as good or bad... it is usually for personal reasons and based upon what that individual values or does not value. I challenge posters in this thread to, instead of saying some author is somehow universally good or bad, clarify what exactly they are good or bad with. Some posters here have done that, others haven't. And before and whenever you criticize, also look for evidence of the contrary. In short, it goes back to what I said in the first sentance of this paragraph. Judge authors for yourself. Don't let others make up your mind for you.

Just bear in mind the source.

I rarely buy. I instead make regular trips to Borders or Barnes and Noble to read what they happen to have there. If I don't like one particular book by an author, I don't assume I'll dislike everything else they've written. I'm not a fan of Buckland's writing style, for instance, but I won't steer clear of reading his works because of that.

I'll agree that Silver Ravenwolf isn't my favorite author. Sone of her tips were useful, but a lot of her 'spells' promote negativity, so I don't really look into her books much anymore.
I happen to run into an author by the name of Kerr Cuchulain (sp?), and he wrote the book called Full Contact Magick. His history that I know of is that he is a Wiccan police officer, and the book that I have read from him was quite useful, though I disliked his constant battering on Christianity. I think he's worth looking up though. 3nodding

Well, isn't that kind of judgmental to say even if you haven't read the author yet?
She isn't entirely bad, but I don't have a lot of money to spend on more books on Wicca from different authors. I go by familiarity.