What is Reddit's opinion of Rudiments of Runelore?

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Hi, rune practitioner and Heathen here. I have a few books that I often use over and over again:

Stanfield's translation / analysis of the Old English Rune Poem, which can be found here. This focuses on the Futhorc (the Anglo-Saxon variant) rather than the Futhark, but I've always found it useful when doing rune work. There's a lot of woo going around in rune circles, and sometimes it's great to just look at the source from an academic perspective and apply that to your interpretation and praxis.

Pollington's "The Rudiments of Runelore", which you can find here. It's a touch dry, but it gives you a good background on the runes from a more academic standpoint, what they were potentially used for, etc. Also, it can give extra context that can work wonders for interpretation.

Plowright's "The Rune Primer: A Down-To-Earth Guide to the Runes" is another that I used a lot when I was getting into the swing of things. You can find it here. It goes a bit more into magickal applications, interpretation, and it also lists all of the rune poems for easy access. It's an easy-to-read book that cuts a lot of the fat you'll find in your usual suspects.

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I'd avoid anything written by Edred Thorsson / Stephen Flowers, too, if you can. His work is the foundation for a lot of modern runic magic, but he's a folkish (see: nazi-adjacent) figure who blurs the line between his own LHP praxis and historical accuracy, and because of this his work passes a lot of LHP UPG as factual historical information, which...isn't great.

A good alternative to Thorsson who covers a lot of the same topics (how to use runes, what they mean, and how to apply them in magical practice from a magician's perspective) is Diana Paxson's "Taking Up The Runes", which you can find here.

I hope this helps!