Great books in which most of the effects are strung together so that each goes from one to the next and you should be fairly set up.
Agreed. Some of the effects are amazing in the way they set you up for the next effect. One of my favorites is T.N.T. which is the first effect in Light -- it shows a shuffled deck to the spectator and then through the effect sets you up for any variations of out of this world. This goes beyond what most people think of self-working.
In the introduction, Giobbi quotes Dr. Jacob Daley who said "If you take a card trick with three sleights and replace the first sleight with a subtlety, you get a better card trick. If you replace the second sleight with another refinement, you get a small miracle. But when you replace the third sleight, then you usually get a mathematical atrocity." These books are full of small miracles.