Chad,

I understand what you're saying and what you do will certainly work. I note however, that although you say that you leave all of the books "sitting out after the performance" you also take the forcing book (whether Houdini or Holmes) back once the spectator has called out the page number. That is very different from leaving the book IN THE HANDS OF A SPECTATOR after they have announced the page. While it may be true that no one has ever called you on it, it's a safe bet that some members of the audience will be wondering why you left one book (the ungimmicked one) in an audience member's hand, but not the other (force) one. Whether or not you want to admit it, IMO that does make the force book suspect in the minds of some audience members. If you use only books that are left in the hands of audience members and which they can examine until the cows come home, there is not only no reason for the books to be suspect but every reason for them to be perceived to be above suspicion. To me, that is the best alternative.

Of course those are only my opinions. Others are certainly free to disagree and, when all is said and done, the choices of which books to use and how to use them is up to each individual performer. I prefer that everything I use in my shows is "squeaky clean" and while some audience members may assume that everything they see me do is accomplished through trickery, they will find nothing to support that assumption.

Keep in mind that in my performances I neither make any claims nor issue any disclaimers and while I simply do what I do and let the observers come to their own conclusions it is my goal to leave them with nothing to prove that what I do isn't real. I don't tell them what to think, I just tell them what they're thinking.

Resurrecting an old thread but I wondered if anyone was selling the Sherlock Holmes Inductive Book Test at all please? Thanks again

Nice to see Dick Christian's posts. So much knowledge is stored here on the forum for those who are willing to do some digging.

Sorry I don't have the book though! If it's the method you're after, one of the books from Ultimate Flashback would be another choice (same pages even), as well as the Houdini book mentioned earlier in the thread.

A question for Mr. Christian what book test would you say give the best impression that any word in any language could be chosen by anyone?

The best method I found was Mark Paul. Look at his lecture at Penguin. No gimmick. Just great

Just a sad note - Dick Christian has died.

Hello Johnny. If you talking about the "AAA book test" I don't think it works that great as a stage test. For casual situations it would be fine. Thanks.

Hi. I did not understand why it would not work on stage? If there is reasonable lighting should not be any problem. This is the method I found the most convenient to obtain information, without any effort. It's true that this is just a method and not a complete routine, which incidentally I would recommend Chuck Hickock's routine

Marc has been using his AAA book test on stage and on cruise ships for many years.

Mark

I love BT reading this reminded me how much I'd been looking forward to Dicks book on BTs

Such a loss

Truly a loss. He was such a good dude, generous with his time here on the forum, and very likely the world's foremost authority on book tests.

I've heard that there are some copies of his lecture notes extant, though it seems that most people that have them are not interested in parting with them. If there is anyone who has a copy of said notes and would like to part with them, please contact me!

I seem to remember (never went or got one) they had orders written Int them (like a contract) that they were not to be sold on or copied or what ever

So that's why they haven't been sold on since - as well as ppl wanting to hold onto them anyway

My copy was acquired when Dick and Alain Nu gave a full day seminar on book tests a number of years back. Two very different perspectives and both quite insightful. The notes that Dick passed out are covered in my handwriting scrawl as he provided quite a bit more info than appears in the notes themselves.

It's funny that you don't see these come up more often. These notes don't have any routines associated with them, it's really more of a bird's eye view of BTs and how they have evolved and what separates the good ones from the mediocre ones. On a few points I disagree with his conclusions, but overall, for lovers of BTs, it's an item worth tracking down.