What magic books should I get? (Beginner)

T

TwoofHearts

Sep 25, 2018
32
19
Hi guys. I started doing magic less than 2 months ago. I have bought some tricks from theory 11, and I just enjoy it so much. But to my question, what books should I get in order to learn basic magic, particularly sleight of hand, card tricks, coin tricks, and some other basic tricks like cups and coins, coins through glass, etc.. here is the list of books I am getting already:

The Royal Road to Card Magic
Expert Card Technique
Complete Course in Magic
Modern Coin Magic
Expert at the Card Table
 
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CaseyRudd

CaseyRudd

Director of Operations
Team member
Jun 5, 2009
3,463
3,951
Charleston, SC
www.instagram.com
JackoBlades said:
Hi guys. I started doing magic less than 2 months ago. I have bought some tricks from theory 11, and I just enjoy it so much. But to my question, what books should I get in order to learn basic magic, particularly sleight of hand, card tricks, coin tricks, and some other basic tricks like cups and coins, coins through glass, etc.. here is the list of books I am getting already:

The Royal Road to Card Magic
Expert Card Technique
Complete Course in Magic
Modern Coin Magic
Expert at the Card Table
Click to expand...
Hi Jacko,

Welcome to the magic community! Incredibly excited to have you on board, and very glad to see you've found your way here. You'll run into many magicians here who are super helpful and will get you started on the right path.

All of the books you named above are ones I would recommend, except Expert at the Card Table. Only reason I say that is because it is not very beginner friendly, despite what you may see around the internet. It's more or less revered for its history and bringing card sleights to the forefront, rather than being the beginner's guide to card sleights many mistake it to be. It's a good read, but only after you are already experienced with handling cards. It's also harder to read than most books out there, as well.

One I would substitute for Expert at the Card Table would be the Card College series, mainly Volumes 1 and 2 to get you started with cards. Has all of the necessary foundations for starting to learn how to handle cards properly and helps you avoid major handling pitfalls a lot of people experience when just starting out.

If you are in the market for card tricks that don't require much sleight of hand at all and are mainly self working, here are a few resources (most of which are video and not books) that I think are worth looking into:

- Card College Light series
- John Bannon's Move Zero project series (3 volumes)
- Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks series (3 volumes)
- Sublime Self Working Card Tricks by John Carey
- Any Shuffled Deck, Self Working Impromptu Miracles by Big Blind Media

Please let me know if you have any questions!
 
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T

TwoofHearts

Sep 25, 2018
32
19
Casey Rudd said:
Hi Jacko,

Welcome to the magic community! Incredibly excited to have you on board, and very glad to see you've found your way here. You'll run into many magicians here who are super helpful and will get you started on the right path.

All of the books you named above are ones I would recommend, except Expert at the Card Table. Only reason I say that is because it is not very beginner friendly, despite what you may see around the internet. It's more or less revered for its history and bringing card sleights to the forefront, rather than being the beginner's guide to card sleights many mistake it to be. It's a good read, but only after you are already experienced with handling cards. It's also harder to read than most books out there, as well.

One I would substitute for Expert at the Card Table would be the Card College series, mainly Volumes 1 and 2 to get you started with cards. Has all of the necessary foundations for starting to learn how to handle cards properly and helps you avoid major handling pitfalls a lot of people experience when just starting out.

If you are in the market for card tricks that don't require much sleight of hand at all and are mainly self working, here are a few resources (most of which are video and not books) that I think are worth looking into:

- Card College Light series
- John Bannon's Move Zero project series (3 volumes)
- Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks series (3 volumes)
- Sublime Self Working Card Tricks by John Carey
- Any Shuffled Deck, Self Working Impromptu Miracles by Big Blind Media

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Click to expand...
Thank you so much!! Very helpful. I am very excited to be part of the magic community
 
RealityOne

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
Casey Rudd said:
All of the books you named above are ones I would recommend, except Expert at the Card Table. Only reason I say that is because it is not very beginner friendly, despite what you may see around the internet. It's more or less revered for its history and bringing card sleights to the forefront, rather than being the beginner's guide to card sleights many mistake it to be. It's a good read, but only after you are already experienced with handling cards. It's also harder to read than most books out there, as well.

One I would substitute for Expert at the Card Table would be the Card College series, mainly Volumes 1 and 2 to get you started with cards. Has all of the necessary foundations for starting to learn how to handle cards properly and helps you avoid major handling pitfalls a lot of people experience when just starting out.
Click to expand...

I agree with both Casey's suggestions.

DavidL11229 said:
If you pick up Card College (recommended) you don't need the other card
books.
Click to expand...

Good point. The five volume Card College series is complete and would replace Royal Road, Expert Card Technique and Expert at the Card Table.

Casey Rudd said:
If you are in the market for card tricks that don't require much sleight of hand at all and are mainly self working,
Click to expand...

I'd add Scarne on Card Tricks (all self-working) and Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (self working and gaffs).
 
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MohanaMisra

MohanaMisra

Jun 18, 2019
540
293
21
West Bengal, India
JackoBlades said:
Hi guys. I started doing magic less than 2 months ago. I have bought some tricks from theory 11, and I just enjoy it so much. But to my question, what books should I get in order to learn basic magic, particularly sleight of hand, card tricks, coin tricks, and some other basic tricks like cups and coins, coins through glass, etc.. here is the list of books I am getting already:

The Royal Road to Card Magic
Expert Card Technique
Complete Course in Magic
Modern Coin Magic
Expert at the Card Table
Click to expand...


Here's a tip...

Don't buy anymore.

I promise you, the next-book syndrome is hellish cruelty to those who want to learn something about anything at all.


The books you've listed are FABULOUS honestly, and stick with them until you're sure you've gone through at least 1/3rd of each book.

:)
 
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Scodischarge

Scodischarge

Nov 3, 2018
542
427
MohanaMisra said:
Don't buy anymore.
Click to expand...
Just to make things clear: I'm pretty sure @MohanaMisra meant that you don't have to buy anything other than what's been listed above, not that you shouldn't buy any more books at all from now on (didn't you?).
Not trying to be a know-it-all, just trying to prevent any misunderstanding, as that's what I thought you meant when reading it at first. If the meaning was abundantly clear to everybody else, I apologize for this pointless post :)

But thank you for bringing up the Next Book Syndrome, as it's reminded me: @JackoBlades If you register at Vanishing Inc., you should think about investing a bloomin' zero dollars in their PDF download "Magic In Mind". It's a collection of essays by some of the top people in magic on magic theory. The first chapter alone completely changed my understanding of magic! It's highly recommended if you want to get a better understanding of our hobby and how to perform it well.
 
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MohanaMisra

MohanaMisra

Jun 18, 2019
540
293
21
West Bengal, India
Scodischarge said:
Just to make things clear: I'm pretty sure @MohanaMisra meant that you don't have to buy anything other than what's been listed above, not that you shouldn't buy any more books at all from now on (didn't you?).
Click to expand...
True, I guess I should have clarified...

I meant that please, OP, don't buy any more books for now. Stick to these. To be honest, I bought Modern Coin Magic 5 years ago and I'm still learning (and I'm not an absolute nincompoop).
So...
 
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