The The Art of Magic: And Sleight of Hand by Nicholas Einhorn
or the Royal Road to card magic

I have both but I don't know which is best to start with

You might even want to start with The Classic Collection, Vol. 1. Who knows? HL.

The royal road is a solid start into card magic.

It will teach you all basics and more. I would recommend it.

The Royal Road is the way to go.

Agreed. Royal Road is a great foundation.

I don't have "The Art of Magic," but Royal Road was one of my first magic books, and it has served me well. For the price, it's pretty hard to beat for the amount of stuff included. It will give you a good foundation on which to build.

How long does it usually take to master a sleight?
How much practice time?

Some take hours, some takes years

Really its like learning any other skill. It may click right away or it may take time.

The only suer thing is, the more you practice, the less time it will take on the calendar and the better you will be.

In a sense, you could say learning any sleight takes a lifetime... you have to keep practicing to stay in shape and every once and while in doing so you discover some new twist.

You will take to some sleights quicker than others.

Some seem to get better naturally especially if its a nacky thing i.e the pressure fan it took me about a year to do perfectly, I would try it now and again without any hardcore practise on it and it just seemed to get better naturally. while other you can do instantly.

One other tip would be to practise while you are doing other things. plam a coin while your typing, mess about with a deck of cards while you watch tv. etc

A sleight is never mastered until you can do it without thinking about it, it has to happen automatically.

I agree with the above.

I sit watching TV doing the classic pass until my wife tells me to "pack it in". You never really stop learning them I suppose, but there does come a point when they're "good enough" to perfom. Although, that said, they could always be better.

As above, some more straightforward sleights are relatively easy and might take a week or two to get the basics down. Whereas others are really quite hard and take a lot longer. But it really is worth the time and effort if you enjoy it.

I'm not new to magic, but new to taking it more seriously.

For me, I've found learning slights is like learning most other things:

Some, I just needed the knowledge... carrying it out is easy.
Others I spend a week on and I couldn't fool you from 2 blocks away... I've got bruises and cramps in muscles I didn't know I had... etc.
Some, maybe I even give up for awhile... then I come back and somehow I've gotten better without even trying. Or I practice so much that I don't notice that the bruises and cramps went away. I've started to relax and it's getting more natural.

Classic palm is killing me with coins right now... but my push over get ready for a DL is way more reliable than when I stopped practicing a couple months ago.

Lesson I'm learning about myself in the process though:
Practicing slights on their own carries a huge burnout factor for me. I need to get out and start performing what I can when I can.
It's like playing pool: I don't want to spend time memorizing 99 critical shots... I want to spend time sinking balls! (Ok, did that even make sense?)

Subconscious muscle memory learns things like the classic palm and muscle pass for you these cannot be learned quickly, your body adapts to allow you to do them.

You get the magic muscles.

Boy, wish I knew all this sh*t when I first got "into" magic over 75 years ago!

ROFLMAO!!!
You gotta love Harry! He thinks he knows more than just about anybody.
(Thing is...he probably does!)

Don't put words in my mouth, DW - I never said I think I know more...etc. YOU said that. What I said was/is: "Boy, wish I knew all this sh*t when I first got "into" magic over 75 years ago!" No more, no less. So, in case you didn't hear me - don't put words in my mouth! (But thanks for your ( ).)

The Einhorn book is actually very good. It's a book about general magic. Cards, coins and everyday objects. It has many good stuff in. RRTCM is just about cards. So, it depends what you are looking for. If you don't know that you want to specialize in cards, get the Einhorn book. It includes a bit of everything, including cards. After that you can decide which direction you want to go in.

Good luck
AJ

I can't improve on andre's post- it is spot on. And, yes, you gotta love Harry- not many make me feel like I did not try hard enough in my brief dance with life, but Harry is one of them!

Jim

Harry's THE MAGIC BOOK is a wonderful learning resource and a reliable and valuable long-term reference for all who enjoy Magic whether you are a beginner or a "pro".

Julie