Recently I have had several different people talking to me about runes. They asked my opinion about which set to use and whether there are books on how actually to use the runes for magick, instead of the many giving nothing but extensive history lessons in several languages. And to all of them with European DNA I say this. The first book I would advise you to read is The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates. This will loosen up your preconceptions enough for you to understand the mind set of those who lived with the runes as symbols of powers.