What is Best Book for Beginner Wiccans Today?

[RandallS]

What do you think is the best book generally available (in print, not find used) today? Ten years ago, the commonly recommended books were books like Buckland's Big Blue (Complete Book of Witchcraft), Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and even Ravenwolf's To Ride a Silver Broomstick. If you could only recommend one book to some interested in becoming Wiccan, what book would it be and why would you suggest that book?

[catja6]

What do you think is the best book generally available (in print, not find used) today? Ten years ago, the commonly recommended books were books like Buckland's Big Blue (Complete Book of Witchcraft), Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and even Ravenwolf's To Ride a Silver Broomstick. If you could only recommend one book to some interested in becoming Wiccan, what book would it be and why would you suggest that book?

 
Where to Park Your Broomstick, by Lauren Manoy. It's aimed specifically at teens, but she has a friendly no-bullshit approach, and a lot of trust in her readers' intelligence: she recommends books like Hutton's Triumph of the Moon. She goes into a lot of detail about different types of religious witchcraft--not just BTW, but also less formal approaches--and doesn't conflate religious witchcraft with other Pagan religions (she also gives basic info on a number of non-Wiccanesque Pagan religions, as well as some traditional religions that are sometimes lumped in with Paganism; she's super good at not lumping, like Voudon under the Pagan umbrella). Her sense of history is very good: she gives a simplified academic history of Wicca etc., and recommends all kinds of good further reading (including, as I said, Hutton). It's a really nice book, and I enjoyed it a lot: well-researched, easy to read and use, and she respects her readers.

[Jenett]

What do you think is the best book generally available (in print, not find used) today? Ten years ago, the commonly recommended books were books like Buckland's Big Blue (Complete Book of Witchcraft), Cunningham's Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and even Ravenwolf's To Ride a Silver Broomstick. If you could only recommend one book to some interested in becoming Wiccan, what book would it be and why would you suggest that book?

 
My usual recommendation these days is Thea Sabin's _Wicca for Beginners_.

There's points where I disagree, but she does a really good job of focusing on the religious aspect (not tons of magic) and she's coming from a BTW background, so while she's talking about more general practice, if someone decides they want to look at initiatory coven work, there isn't as much to unlearn.

My somewhat longer rec list, which needs some updating, is at http://gleewood.org/seeking/suggested-reading/introductory-books/ - I tend to subscribe to the theory that no one book is going to cover everything well, so planning on different books that focus on specific topics may work a lot better.