Comments on: The Big Idea: Nick Stone

By: Josh S.

Josh S. — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:09:46 +0000

Mr. Stone sounds like he’s come up with a really interesting novel. If anyone is interested in an insightful explanation of techniques used by fake psychics, I can’t recommend Ian Rowland’s Full Facts Book of Cold Reading enough — although you’ll almost certainly have to manage an Interlibrary loan to get hold of it. In his Big Idea Nick says “Writers would make brilliant Tarot readers,” and Rowland’s book can make you better at both.

And now I’m off to grab The King of Swords.

By: The Fighter

The Fighter — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:21:32 +0000

I like the idea of the tarot as a Rorschach substitute.

Of course, Rorschach’s deck would be a few cards short, and what IS there is overwhelmingly Towers and Hanged Men.

By: nfurman

nfurman — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:42:07 +0000

I am definitely going to check out this book. And, as a tarot reader of 40 years, I can definitively tell you that we are not all frauds, loons, and idiots. Really. I also actually charge money, though not often, because it is not a primary business. After all like any lawyer or accountant I have spent 40 years honing my skills, and it is a skill as well as an aptitude. And it is not a Rohrschach substitute. Ah well, thanks to my friend who sent me here .
Glorious Yule to all

Nanette Furman

By: Benoît Côté

Benoît Côté — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:47:50 +0000

Typo, his or yours?: “Her reader had told her she was gong to marry” (…).

I enjoyed the anecdotes. B., Ottawa, Can.

(P.S. I *like* “gong to marry”: it feels like “all hot to marry”.)

By: Gennita Low

Gennita Low — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:56:33 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed the confessional tone in each writer’s Big Idea. The seeds that become a novel are powerful and magical, and in many ways, a gift of insight. How Big Ideas come about intrigues me and I respect every author’s way of interpreting the sudden insights that come from daily living and make them come alive in a story.

By: ruzkin

ruzkin — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:11:01 +0000

The one tarot reading I’ve ever had – free, from a friend who does tarot as a hobby – was frighteningly accurate and specific about my problems at the time and the solutions to those problems. I followed the advice to the letter and everything worked out exactly as I’d hoped.

Psychological trick? Perhaps. But it’s a GOOD trick.

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:19:01 +0000

A good friend of mine, an Armenian woman, would invite me over for Turkish coffee. After we drank, she would turn the tiny cups upside down on the saucers, and then read my fortune in the thick residue that trickled down inside my cup. I was always supposed to marry a tall, dark-eyed man. Still waiting!

By: JJS

JJS — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:40:26 +0000

I had a great aunt who was a fortune teller (and there aren’t very many mormon fortune tellers). I never met her, but all my older relatives claimed she was very good. My mother insisted that this aunt came back to visit her in a dream, and told her it was OK to let me do something I wanted to do but which my mother was very much against.

I had one tarot reading once, and it was quite accurate.

I still think it’s all meadow muffins.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:42:19 +0000

I’m sold as well. Sounds like an interesting book, I will keep an eye out for it. (I also read David Skibbins’s tarot mystery series, but he doesn’t do as much tarot in them as you’d think, for a narrator who does readings for a living.)

I wish I was that good at readings!

By: Novembrance

Novembrance — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:16:39 +0000

I’m totally sold. Great post.