Card Books

[Matt]

Hi, I would like to know what you guys think about the following books:
Card College (1-5), Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique, and Expert at the Card Table
I am thinking about buying all 4 so I would have a great collection of card magic and would have a lot to study for a while. I am leaning towards books because there is just so much more in them than in a DVD, and for cheaper. Plus I can take these books where ever I go and read them

Anyway, what do you guys (and girls) think about these books, should I purchase them; and do you guys have any other suggestions?
I was also looking towards the Art of Astonishment series as well, but I'm not sure about picking those up yet, as Card College might be more useful to me.

 

[Shanku]

Well if you're a beginner to intermediate then Card College will help you a lot. If you already have a lot of sleights down then I suggest going for AoA. Card college has some basic effects which are more for practicing the sleights while AoA has some killer effects which require you to know your basic sleights (although Paul does teach them briefly)....

Royal Road is also a gem for beginners and intermediate's. Expert Card Technique and Expert At The Card Table are more suited to the intermediate to the advanced...

 

[AlexKistner]

you might wanna snag revolutionary card technique by Ed Marlo before it goes out of print again Very ADvanced but a must have

 

[Matt]

I would personally say I am maybe past intermediate or around there with cards. There are still a few things I haven't really touched on - for example shifts.

I heard that there were a good amount of tricks in AoA that are just not practical, is that true?
I thought that getting the volumes of card college would be more beneficial, as they would be a very nice reference to many sleights, tricks, and theories on card magic.

Would you recommend still getting Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique, and Expert at the Card Table, especially for the price they are at?

 

[Sergey]

To tell you the truth, books especiially old ones aren't that great, they have pretty old effects and are hard to follow, I don't have CC but I would say that it probably covers everything and newer more better card techniques than the 3 other books you mentioned. Get the books for a reason not just because it's cool to have 100 hundred year old books, in your library.

Card College is great because it's newer and is really the whole course of magic, from picking up a deck of cards, to being a real card magician. So I've heard.

 

[Matt]

To tell you the truth, books especiially old ones aren't that great, they have pretty old effects and are hard to follow, I don't have CC but I would say that it probably covers everything and newer more better card techniques than the 3 other books you mentioned. Get the books for a reason not just because it's cool to have 100 hundred year old books, in your library.

Card College is great because it's newer and is really the whole course of magic, from picking up a deck of cards, to being a real card magician. So I've heard.

Do you own the books though?

Some one over at E gave me this advice, which I thought was excellent:

Expert at the Card Table
This was one of the first books that went into detail on card magic so it's worth having just for interest's sake. There are a lot of good moves in there, but a lot of it is focused on cheating techniques and some of it is outdated (new and more efficient techniques have since been developed). You probably won't get a great deal out of it, but there are a couple of things that are well worth studying in that book, the theory in particular is streets ahead of its time.

Royal Road to Card Magic
Simply put, a must. This book teaches you a bunch of the most useful sleights and there are (I think) a hundred tricks, a load of which are very good, some of which are fantastic. The teaching is very clear and easy to follow, though some of the language used is a little old-fashioned.

Expert Card Technique
This book is also very good, though I think it's major downfall is it's lack of structure. Whereas Royal Road builds on previous chapters in a logical order, this is collected into chapters of similar techniques and there's no particularly obvious order to read it in. It is however very good to refer back to, and the tricks sections contain some real gems.

Card College
The best books on cards there are. Period. Seriously, I love these books. They go into so much detail, they are very easy to read and understand, the material is excellent and the techniques are up to date. Everything is cross-referenced and it really is a fantastic place to learn from. I highly recommend this over everything.

Art of Astonishment
These books are odd, but brilliant. The methods are simple, direct and usually very original. A lot are very easy, only a couple are tricky and there's also a lot of non-card material you can use to expand your repertoire with.

To sum up, all 5 of these books/sets of books will serve you well and you will learn some great stuff from each one of them, some more than others, but they are all definitly worth owning.

Tom

 

[Matt]

I ordered Royal Road, Expert Card Technique, and Expert at the Card Table.

Does anyone here know anything about these books?
Card Control - Arther Buckley
Card Tricks and Stunts - Jean Hugard
Card Manipulations - Jean Hugard
More Card Manipulations - Jean Hugard

Thanks, Matt