Well.. Recently, I've gone through my garage and added a LOT of magic books to my personal collection from which belonged to my grandfather. So now, I've got so many books and I'm not sure which to read!

I understand most books I'm about to name have a lot of "GOLD!" in them as far as techniques.. But I'm wondering which of these books provide some of the best tricks.. (primarily silk and cards, maybe a bit of rope) So in general, which of these books in particular have what you would say is a "GOOD TRICK!" Here's a list of some of the books I've been able to add to my collection:

Greater Magic - Hilliard
Expert Card Technique - Jean Hugard
Dai Vernon's Tribute to Nate Leipzig - Lew Ganson
The Royal Road to Card Magic - Jean hugard
The Expert at the Card Table
Tarbell's course in magic volume 1-8 - Harlan Tarbell
Close-up Fantasies 1, 2, and finale - Paul Harris
Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic Vol. 1-4 - Rice
The world's Greatest Magic
Encyclopedia of Card Tricks - Jean Hugard
Inner Secrets of Card Magic - Lewis Ganson
More Inner Secrets of Card Magic - Lewis Ganson
The New Magician's Manual - Gibson
Close-Up Card Magic - Harry Lorayne
Afterthoughts - Harry Lorayne
Rim Shots - Harry Lorayne
The Master Magicians - Walter Gibson
The Fine Art of Magic - Kaplan
The Stein Day book of Magic - ?
Scarne's Tricks - John Scarne
Original Magic - ?
Conjuring as a Craft - Ian Adair
Gravatt's Treasure Trove Tricks - ?
Encyclopedia of Cigarette Tricks - Keith Clark
Card Cavalcade Four - Montzer
Card Manipulations - Hugard
More Card Manipulations - Hugard
Self-Working Card Tricks - Karl Kulves
Abott's Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks for Magicians
Card Control - Hugard?
Houdini on Magic - ?
Houdini on Escapes - ?


Sorry for the question marks on author.. Essentiall, I just took a picture of my book case and tried reading the books off near my computer with a couple pictures with my phone. I've still got 8 more cardboard boxes of books.. A lot of it is on history and witchcraft though.. Haven't really sorted through them as well as other boxes since those sorts of things don't really interest me. There's still a lot more books.. but I didn't think they were as important to name.. Most aren't highly recognized authors.

I'm not worried about difficulty. I practice many hours a day, I'm just looking for the book that will provide me with some interesting TRICKS to practice. Not so much just practicing Techniques. So.. Let me ask you this.. Say you had never read any of these books, but still (some how) had no difficulty performing something after reading it.. Which would you start reading first? I understand that a lot or most people would start with Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique, Expert at the Card Table, etc.. but I've either mastered the things in those books, or I practice them daily in effort to master them. For me it's hard to keep practicing a few things all at once. I like to keep learning and just choose what I want to keep practicing as I learn. (not saying I wont go back to it) I haven't mastered the second or bottom deal-- So I'm definitely still practicing it, I'm not looking to quit practicing it. I just want to read more material while I'm practicing this as well.

Thanks!

The Tarbell Course In Magic is a great series to look into. There is a little bit of everything in these books.

I definitely agree, I've read the first 30 or so lessons.. But, I find that most of it isn't as powerful as I'm looking for. I did sort of forget to mention that I'm primarily asking about cards.. Non of the Tarbell card tricks that I've read so far really impress me

The Royal Road to Card Magic and anything by Harry Lorayne should set you off in the right direction.

Ray

As their names hint, Expert Card Technique, and Epert at the Card Table are probably not the best ones to start with.
If you want to learn tricks, look at the index, and see how they lists technique and tricks, then choose from there!

P!

Royal Road To Card Magic is a good starting point. There are some tricks in there that really fry people, but it's important to read it from cover to cover as you learn all sorts of different things along the way. An interesting thing to note is that I've re-read the book a couple of times over the years and I always come out of it with a new trick or two that didn't impress me the first time around.

After that, I highly recommend Close Up Card Magic.

You cannot go wrong with Lorayne's books! Hugards' are good to, but for cards, the Royal Road is a basic!

Zephury... my 2 cents for what it is worth; the books you list are a good foundation to build upon, its their presentations of what is there that needs to be updated... presentation is everything.

Good luck,
Bruce

Zephury... I just read your other post on another topic... you had the answer there in regards to updating the classics so they can be related to in the here and now.

Bruce

While reading books watching for the tricks, I suggest you to read Magic in mind by Joshua Jay
This book will make you think
http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic-d......in-mind/

I would check out any of Vernon's books.

Close-up Card Magic has a ton of excellent material.