Hi There,

What are your top 5 Magic Books?

Currently I do not own many magic books merely because I have not really had much advice on where to start. I do close up card magic mainly and want to know what your favourite books are and why?

Maybe the books you found most useful or the best reads and most influential to your magic.

From knucklebusting sleight of hand to self working miracles! Whats your 5 and why would they be a good addition to begin my library?

I'll start with my 5 (My only 5 really!)

1. Expert Card Technique
2. Nocturnal Creations by Paul Gordon
3. 165 Card Tricks and Stunts by Jean Hugard
4. Art of Astonishment Vol. 3
5. Random Lecture Notes/Booklets (from Simon Lovell, Randy Wakeman and Peter Duffie)

Thanks In Advance

Jake

Amatuers Magicians Handbook
Modern Coin Magic
Royal Road
Expert Card Technique
Close up Card Magic

Frank

Art of Astonishment Vol. 1
Drawing Room Deceptions
Art of Astonishment Vol. 3
Royal Road
Modern Coin Magic

Call me an old curmudgeon, but there are already several hundred nearly identical threads.

Card College 1
Card College 2
Card College 3
Card College 4
Card College 5

:bikes:

Jinx 1-3
Act Two
Theater of The Mind


And yes, there are a ton of threads like this

Greater Magic
Dai Vernons Book of Magic
Secrets of Brother John Hamman
The Magic of Milton Kort
Derek Dingles Complete Work

Life death and other card tricks by Robert Neale
Peek Perfomances by Richard busch.
totm and Act 2 both by Barrie Richarson.
Capricornia Tales by Chelman.

John Carney -- Secrets
Dai Vernon's Book of Magic
Royal Road
Henry Hay's Amateur Magicians Handbook (Available at many public libraries)
Barrie Richardson Act Two

1. Collected Works of Alex Elmsley 2
2. CardZones
3. Effortless Card Magic
4. Drawing Room Deceptions
5. Dave Campbell Legacy

Greater Magic
Books Of Wonder vol 1
Books Of Wonder vol 2
Stunners
Mind Myth & Magic

Secret Ways of Al Baker
Edwins Magic
Magic of Michael Ammar
Constant Fooling
Jack Hughes World of Magic
Book of secrets

Okay that's six,but a very nice six.

Jake: How is any Paul Gordon book in a top 5? Do you only have 5 books?

Also, in your initial post, you ask peopl to list their top 5 books and why they should be added. How come you didn't add the why to your list?

The Mark Wilson Course
The Card Magic of Nick Trost
Magic Digest
Mastering the Art of Magic
Royal Road to Card Magic

Bert Allerton's The Close-Up Magician
Eugene Burger (All)
Tarbell's
Jinx
Phoenix

Hi asper, Er good point...

Unfortunately yes I do only own these books, I own many DVD's but now find books give a better insight into a Magicians theories/views of magic and prefer learning from them.

Nocturnal Creations has some fantastic content (although it may not be at all original) but I have nothing against Paul as I have never met him.

When I opened this thread it was intended to help me learn which books have inflenced others. I merely forget to give my reasons because I had to finish IT coursework last night when I posted the thread. (oops)

Briefly...

Expert Card Technique and 165 Card Tricks...: Sheer volume of sleights and subtleties and some very interesting and clever tricks (I class these book as my card encyclepedias)

Art of Astonishment Vol. 3: Fantastic Ideas (I especially like Anything Deck)

Nocturnal Creations: Some strong effects

Random Lectures Notes: Random tricks from great magicians

Thanks guys

Jake

Not necessarily *THE* top 5, but a good sampling:
The Fine Art of Magic by George Kaplan - Great handlings of classic and some not-so classic tricks. Great variety of magic. Most of the stuff in the book could be put in paid shows. The book has coin magic, subtle card magic, mentalism, and real-world parlour magic.

Classic Secrets of Magic by Bruce Elliot - Wonderful collection of magic, including interesting handlings and takes on many classic tricks. I've done everything in this book, except the corncobs trick.

The Royal Road to Card Magic - The Card Geeks like Expert Card Technique, but the Parlour Magic Chapter has some of the best card routines ever collected in one place.

The Secrets of Karl Germain - Off-Beat magic by an original. Very inspirational.

The Dai Vernon Book of Magic by Ganson - Enough has been said about this book by those more eloquent than I.

Of course, I'm biased towards English texts focusing on sleight-of-hand magic.

First off, I always love these posts. The topic of discussion is "Your Top 5 Magic Books," and without fail, there would always be someone who names four books. Or six. Or names one author's entire catalogue and counts it as one. So a hearty "kudos" to 12 out of 17 of you before me for actually naming one-two-three-four-five books.

As for my top ***FIVE*** favorite books:

Carneycopia
Pure Effect
Card College 5
Drawing Room Deceptions
Workers 2 (on the strength of The Frog Prince)

Kevin,
It's worse in the your top 5 dvds posts. People will often count an 3 dvd and 4 dvd sets as 1 dvd.

1- The Card Magic of Nick Trost
2 - Up Close & Personal - David Regal
3 - Effortless Card Magic - Peter Duffie
4 - Greater Magic
5 - Annemann - Max Abrams.
The above are my top 5, now for books I really like but not singles,
1 - Tarbell course (8 Volumes)
2 - Apocalypse - Harry Lorayne (4 volumes)
3 - The Jinx - Ted Annemann - (3 volumes)
4 - The James File- Stewart James (3 volumes)
5 - Classic Magic Series - Robert Albo (8+ volume)
This list could actually go on for quite a while, but have to stop somewhere.
Rennie