Favorite books

[Ang]

Hi all,

When I'm learning my magic I generally turn to books for my information. I feel that it's the best way to learn that secret move, or piece of magic theory since there is only room for your own interpretation of whatever you're reading.

I feel that the current generation of magicians (me included) gets to absorbed in the 'hype train' that the new DVDs put out there. Though DVDs are a great way to learn new tricks they don't cover the vast concepts of the many magic books.


I'd like this thread to be somewhat simple. Just name some books you find particularly helpful to your magic career and why. I want this to help any magician in his or her way to success!

(Sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes. I'm on my phone making this post before I forget.)

 

[Colin]

Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
Card College series
Royal Road to Card Magic
Modern Coin Magic by Bobo
Tarbell's course in magic (many of the routines in Tarbell need to be updated somehow but the info is gold. Dan Harlan is doing a series about this elsewhere)

All of these are easily obtainable and most are quite inexpensive. Tarbell and Card College would need to be bought through a magic dealer I think but the others can be ordered through any bookstore.

It is worth looking at Dover's website they have some great magic books for low prices and any bookstore is able to order those in http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-magic.html

 

[ChrisWiens]

Strong Magic, Designing Miracles, The Magic of Ascanio, Five Points in Magic, The Magic Way, Our Magic, Bobos, Card College, The Books of Wonder, Maximum Entertainment, Magic and Meaning Expanded, Experience of Magic, The Book of Secrets, Non-Plus Ultra and many more.
I also enjoy the new books that were released in recent times. Vanishing inc., Hermetic Press, Richard Kaufman, just to name a few, are still releasing tons of quality books and I think books are far from dead.
My latest purchase was "Blomberg Laboratories". Compare such a treasure trove with a DVD release.
I have othing against DVDs, but I'm just enjoying books more.

 

[RealityOne]

This is tough. If you asked me books for a certain purpose, I could come up with a list easily. But my favorites. That's tough. I'm not going to list most useful books (like Card College and Tarbell) because I view those as tools. My favorites have to be the books that I've enjoyed reading the most. So, here they are in no particular order:

Impossibilia by John Bannon
Vortex by Tom Stone
WD40 by Wayne Dobson
Confidences by Roberto Giobbi
Prism by Max Maven
The Books of Wonder - Tommy Wonder
Conjuring by Jim Steinmeyer
Stars of Magic
Mark Wilson's Complete Course

 

[WyattSB]

Gotta be Absolute Magic, really brought my considerations about what I'm doing to the next level.

 

[Rev]

Here's a few:

Royal Road to Card Magic - Jean Hugard & Frederick Braue
Dear Mr Fantasy - John Bannon
High Caliber - John Bannon
Destination Zero - John Bannon
One Degree - John Guastaferro
Tangled Web - Eric Mead
The Collected Almanac - Richard Kaufman
Prism - Max Maven


I can't say I really perform any material from any of these books (maybe one trick from 'Destination Zero') at least not exactly as written anyway. But they have provided inspiration when required. Some of them (Bannon's, Guastaferros, Mead's) are simply really well written books that are just plain great to read.

Rev

 

[CoffeeWithMagic]

Here are some old books old (and one new one) that I've used and referenced many times over the years in no particular order, except the newest one that is listed last:
1) Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
2) World's Greatest Card Tricks (by Bob Longe)
3) Magic with Cards (by Garcia & Schindler)
4) The Magic Handbook (by Peter Eldin)
5) My Best (by J.G. Thompson, Jr.)

1) Mark Wilson's is just a great reference in general with lots of basics covered. Ropes. Silks. Cards. Sponge Balls. Etc.

2) & 3) World's Greatest Card Tricks and Magic with Cards have some great card tricks in them without needing gaffed cards, or much slight of hand (if any), but I'm not sure these can still be found.

4) The Magic Handbook was like a mini-version of Mark Wilson's Course in Magic for me. It's easier to carry, but has some solid basic tricks in it. (Can be found on Amazon used for like .01 + shipping)

5) My Best is my latest magic book purchase, but I haven't gotten into it very deep. It seems there's A LOT of material that is very solid from what I have skimmed through, and some I have read about online.

 

[Josh Burch]

Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer

Marlo on Erdnase by Jon Racherbaumer

Art of Astonishment by Paul Harris

These three books have done a ton to shape my magic.