I was looking over my enormously long wish list of books and after I finish this post I am going to go buy a lottery ticket. But in the meantime, I was am seeking some first hand advice from those of you that have read the following books I am choosing from. While my list contains many more books than just these, I have narrowed it down to these four for today.

Five Points In Magic
Magic By Misdirection and Showmanship For Magicians (yes I realize this is two books)
Book of Secrets
The Approach

I realize that this is a very subjective (or is it objective) question, but I'm hoping some of you can offer your opinions on these great books. I'd love to own them all (one day), but right now it's not in the budget.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,
It is very hard to answer since we don't know your experience in magic.
The Approach has the best ratio number of tricks / price.
Personally, I would take the John Carney book.

I've been a student of magic for nearly twenty-five years. I used to entertain friends and family many years ago, but I am far from a professional. In college (1997) I was known as "Magic Mike". Fast forward twenty years and I'm known as "dad". I haven't performed in years, but it's time to shake the rust off.

Books I own, but have not necessarily read include: Greater Magic, Approaching Magic, Strong Magic, Designing Miracles, The Magic of Michael Ammar, The Amateur Magician's Handbook, New Modern Coin Magic, Maximum Entertainment, Devious Standards, Expert Card Technique, Magic and Showmanship, Card College Light, Magical Mathematics, Power Plays and several other randoms.

I have have a slew of DVDs, but nowadays they are just a pain to consume. I probably need to take a weekend and put them into my personal cloud.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.

The Approach is a workbook for pursuing gigs. It doesn't sound like that's where you're at right now.

The several more recent books on theory that you already have re-cover a lot of the ground that Fitzkee wrote about.

Carney's Book of Secrets will be a blend of tricks and theory.

Tamariz' Five Points in Magic is theory of a different sort than anything you have.

Considering your magic life, the Carney book would be still my choice.
Have you studied strong magic & designing miracle ? And maximum entertainment ? If it is not the case, I would start with those and the Card College series (vol 1 to 5). You will revisiting the basics, which is a very good thing we should all do.

Kind of late but I'd get them in reverse alphabetical order but that is just me. If you could get them all at once the order doesn't matter.
Good Luck!!

I wrote THE MAGIC BOOK just for you!