ok this is an old book but I am going to write a review anyways because I like it
The Book: The book looked nice with decent illustrations. The only minus is that it's paperback. Every type of sleight or trick is divided into it's own Chapter where they go into detail and explanation. 9/10
Sleights: The book had a vast amount of sleights. It had passes almost for every occasion, it had a lot of jog info, false deals doubles, you name it. Some of the sleights in it are a little old fashioned but most we still use today. And each chapter that is dedicated to a sleight has many versions of it for any occasion. 9.5/10
Color Changes/Flourishes: Well both are very old fashioned and aren't in much use now, it does teach you how to fan and pressure fan but still it's probably better now to learn from someone who dedicated themselves to flourishing, which wasn't the writers of the book. But since the book was on magic and that was only a chapter in the book I will grade it on a 5 scale system. 2/5
Tricks: It had more tricks than I thought and they were better than I thought, too. It had whole chapters dedicated to a single type of trick like Ambitious card or Rising card out of the deck, which had versions of the trick the chapter is on, some we still probably use today so you could probably find something good and useful, although others are old-fashioned. Other CHapters were dedicated to a type of trick like Self Working tricks, and it was filled with them, and some were pretty good. Well basicly the tricks are ok if you try you will find something you'll like. 8/10
Explantion: THis is the downfall. It's not that its explanation is bad, the problem is that it's old English, it uses very unfamiliar words and is hard to understand because we don't use them today. But I find it kind of fun to read old English, just find a good dictionary and get ready to read things over and over and over again. The illustrations help, but there is not enough of them to make an animated movie so basicly if you can read things and visualize or you are stubborn and will read over and over untill you get it. Again that's the downfall of the book, but if you are commoted enough you will pull through. 6.5/10
Presentation/Misdirecction Chapters: Well those are actually really good, I haven't read all of it, but I did read likemost of it, and it's very good and detailed, especially Presentation chapter. In misdirection chapter they talked about misdirection in general and then they gave you examples of misdirection for different occasions, some were a little old-fashioned (which you could still modify to be useful) while other examples were really good even for now-a-days. THe Presentation chapter was very good it had a lot of advice on different types of presentations, humorous, social and friendly, wizard-like, etc. and it went into detail on how to present tricks effectively, how to present routines effectively, so no matter what type of presentation you do, you'll probably find some advice for yourself, that section is really good. Overall 9.5/10
Overall I consider it a pretty good buy, if you have time on your hands and the commitment to learn. Every weekend when I have time from school I will read a little of it and learn something new. Overall I counted the Average of my scores and it turned out to be 8/10, basicly I really recommend it but get ready to use the dictionary a lot and reread things a bunch of times, the info in the book though, will be worth it.
The Book: The book looked nice with decent illustrations. The only minus is that it's paperback. Every type of sleight or trick is divided into it's own Chapter where they go into detail and explanation. 9/10
Sleights: The book had a vast amount of sleights. It had passes almost for every occasion, it had a lot of jog info, false deals doubles, you name it. Some of the sleights in it are a little old fashioned but most we still use today. And each chapter that is dedicated to a sleight has many versions of it for any occasion. 9.5/10
Color Changes/Flourishes: Well both are very old fashioned and aren't in much use now, it does teach you how to fan and pressure fan but still it's probably better now to learn from someone who dedicated themselves to flourishing, which wasn't the writers of the book. But since the book was on magic and that was only a chapter in the book I will grade it on a 5 scale system. 2/5
Tricks: It had more tricks than I thought and they were better than I thought, too. It had whole chapters dedicated to a single type of trick like Ambitious card or Rising card out of the deck, which had versions of the trick the chapter is on, some we still probably use today so you could probably find something good and useful, although others are old-fashioned. Other CHapters were dedicated to a type of trick like Self Working tricks, and it was filled with them, and some were pretty good. Well basicly the tricks are ok if you try you will find something you'll like. 8/10
Explantion: THis is the downfall. It's not that its explanation is bad, the problem is that it's old English, it uses very unfamiliar words and is hard to understand because we don't use them today. But I find it kind of fun to read old English, just find a good dictionary and get ready to read things over and over and over again. The illustrations help, but there is not enough of them to make an animated movie so basicly if you can read things and visualize or you are stubborn and will read over and over untill you get it. Again that's the downfall of the book, but if you are commoted enough you will pull through. 6.5/10
Presentation/Misdirecction Chapters: Well those are actually really good, I haven't read all of it, but I did read likemost of it, and it's very good and detailed, especially Presentation chapter. In misdirection chapter they talked about misdirection in general and then they gave you examples of misdirection for different occasions, some were a little old-fashioned (which you could still modify to be useful) while other examples were really good even for now-a-days. THe Presentation chapter was very good it had a lot of advice on different types of presentations, humorous, social and friendly, wizard-like, etc. and it went into detail on how to present tricks effectively, how to present routines effectively, so no matter what type of presentation you do, you'll probably find some advice for yourself, that section is really good. Overall 9.5/10
Overall I consider it a pretty good buy, if you have time on your hands and the commitment to learn. Every weekend when I have time from school I will read a little of it and learn something new. Overall I counted the Average of my scores and it turned out to be 8/10, basicly I really recommend it but get ready to use the dictionary a lot and reread things a bunch of times, the info in the book though, will be worth it.
