Expert at the Card Table is great if you want to do gambling demos, etc. But Expert Card Technique is AWESOME...I highly recommend it

Card College Volume 1-4 .. it is the preverbial bible of card magic...

I was extremely dissapointed with 5 though

I'm a beginner myself and have read Ed Marlo's Revolutionary Card Technique. Very good book for all levels!

Sharingan:

The Royal Road to Card Magic (RRTCM) by Hugard & Braue is probably one of the best and most important card technique book to have when starting off in Card Magic. This book will teach you all the basic techniques that you will need to perform Card Magic.

After reading the Royal Road to Card Magic (RRTCM) and mastering this book another good book to have would be the Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation (ECT) by Erdnase, S. W. Braue. Several other Magic Café members recommend this book already to you. The Expert at the Card Table is a classic magic book that you will use most of the time for reference. It’s a small book and it is an inexpensive book to buy but this book will give you many ideas with card techniques.

After these two classic magic card books, the next important Card Magic book would be the Card College Volumes. Again other posters have recommended this series to you. Card College by Robert Giobbi comes in 5 Volumes. There is a rumor about a 6th volume coming out but I don’t know if this is true or not.

I would not purchase them all at once because they are somewhat expensive but I would buy them one at a time starting with Card College Volume 1. Read through volume 1, purchase volume 2, read through volume 2, then purchase volume 3 and finally read through that book.

In my opinion, I personally would just buy the first three volumes of Card College because the first three volumes are the most important books of the collection and they contain the majority of the information that you will need and it would be cheaper alternative then buying all 5 or 6 books of the series.

Some members of the Magic Café and other people have expressed disappointment in Card College volumes 4 & 5 and thought that these volumes contained too much “filler” material and were not as important as the first three volumes. Some people purchased them anyway just to complete their Card College set. The choice is up to you.

The Royal Road to Card Magic (RRTCM), Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation (ECT), and Card College Volumes 1-3 will keep you busy studying for a lifetime. If you need more Card Magic books after going through these three books then you can purchase other Card Magic books by great card Magicians such as: Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon, Darwin Ortiz, etc. Learn a few good card tricks and you will be on your way.

Good luck with your magic.

Gerard

A book that I got early on and love it is Scarne on Card Tricks, it has some great tricks all without sleight of hand, so if you want good tricks that is what I'd get, if you want more sleight I'd get some of the books that others have recommended.

If it is trick book you're looking for, go with Nick Trost's book. Not very difficult but strong effects. Many of his marketed effects are in this book.