Crystaliscious Review of The Crystal Bible and The Crystal Bible II

I get asked so often what are the best books to read about crystals. There is an extensive libraby out there on crystals, whether you are looking for metaphysical properties or geological information, there is already a book about it. Joshua and I not only read many of these books, we have worked with the information within them and learned what is effective in our present moment and what itsn't. I will highlight each book in separate post in order to give you the opportunity to choose which books are right for you. Hopefully I will give you enough information to make an informed choice, allowing you to build your personal library on the subject of crystals. At the end of each post, I will break down scores based on 5 different categories, Size and weight ( portability), Organization of content, ease of use, presentation and actual content. You will see the score in each category as well as the over all avg. of the book. I hope you enjoy our ramblings about the work we have done not only with the stones, but also with other tools available.

Today I plan on starting with Judy Hall's, The Crystal Bible.






Although Judy Hall has written several books about crystals that are extrememly informative and entertaining, her most important contribution in my opinion is the knowledge she has mastered by bringing together what we know today as the Crystal Bible I and Crystal Bible II. We will do these books together, yet point out some very amazing traits that are peculiar to each one.

Size and Weight CBI score ( 5★) CBII ( 5★)
The first thing to notice about these books is the size of them. this may not sound like a relevant point in a book review, but hey if you are a crystal healer who is having to travel with your tools, the size and weight of the book makes a pretty big difference as to which book is part of your 'travel pack'. These books easily fit inside most ladies purses, if you carry one, the side pocket of many back packs and they weigh less than one pound each. When I have a back pack full of rocks, that are starting to add up to about 70 or 80 pounds, I personally prefer to add the lightest weight book that is still an effective referance. That is exactly what I get with the Crystal Bible.

Organization CBI ( 5★) CBII ( 5★)
With a table of contents that is diveded into 2 parts, 'contents' and 'crystal reference', it is easy to quickly find a stone you may be looking for. The stones are in alphabetical order, making it fast and almost brainless to find a stone. The contents are clearly labled so that you can easily choose a section of information that is outside the crystal references such as crystal backgrounds which is a pretty generic explanation of how crystals form. The index of the book refers to symptoms and stones can easily be found by symptom, rather than by name.

Ease of Use  CBI( 5★) CBII ( 5★)
Ease of use refers to how many times I would be apt to use this book to look something up rather than another book. For the most part CBI / II are the first place I start when I am wanting to reference something. Judy Hall is offers very quick, precise information that for the most part is accurate. The amount of 'fluff' is minimal and her insight is very practical. This is a good reference book to use while working with stones and wanting a very quick, no bull shit answer as to what this stone has been said to do. I often refer to CBI / II as the 'down and dirty', when want info fast and don't have time to read a lot of fluff.

Presentation  CBI( 5★) CBII ( 5★)
When it comes to crystal books, Judy Hall has the presentation category hands down! I realize that there are many books out there that may show better graphics of crystals, stones and minerals, but Ms. Hall's presentation on stones is real. She not only shows you what the upper price range of a stone would look like, she also shows youpictures of what you are most likely to see in your local store. This can make this book one of your MVB ( most valuable books), because often times clients or friends will ask me what a stone is ( I do realize that they know not what they do....) and hand me a dull black tumbled stone. It helps alot to see what many of these stones typically looks like in its tumbled form. She also has graphics of most formations that make that stone special. She focuses on everyday real stones that you are likely to have, or see, rather than very rare minerals with shots from a museum.

Actual Content CBI( 4★) CBII ( 3★)
As much as I would love to give higher ratings here, I feel that there are still some mistakes in the actual information. when I say mistakes I am talking facts, such as the claim that Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye is a form of Beryl, it isn't, it's structure does not match that of beryl. Beryl is Beryllium Aluminum Silicate that forms in the hexagonal crystal structure. Chrysoberyl is an Oxide that forms in the Orthorhombic crystal structure. They are different minerals and different crystals. This does not make her information useless by far, The amount of information compiled and organized in such a simple way makes up for the few places where there are some factual error. Ms Hall has written about her experiences with stones over a 30 year period and she expresses herself very concisely, effectively and intellegently, however the 'new stones' in CBII are not new stones, these are new names for old stones for marketing techniques and I took points off for this. As a consumer and as a teacher, I prefer books that are not full of marketing ploys to confuse the consumer into spending more money, I prefer straight talk about what a stone is, what others experience have been and any recommendations those who have worked with the stones have. I am not looking for new names with stories of glory and romance behind them meant to drive sales. There is less of this in CBI than CBII, when looking at industry standards at the time of publishing for each of these books it makes sense that Ms. Hall had to step into the competition stirred up by other authors on the subject, at that time, but I believe her information was much better prior to that step in her career.

Would I recommend this books to Friends? YES
Would I re-purchase this books if the need arrises ? YES
CBI Overall score - ( 4. 8 ★)
CBII overall score - ( 4. 6 ★)