All right fellow magicians how are you all doing? Fine I hope. What I want to know is what magic books do you all own? Here are my books that I own.

Royal Road To Card Magic
Karl Fulves' Self Working Rope Magic
Karl Fulves' Self Working Coin Magic
Karl Fulves' Self Working Close up Card Magic
Karl Fulves' More More Self Working Card Magic
Practical Mental Magic
Henry Hay Learn Magic
Houdini on Magic
Cyclopedia of Magic Mark Wilson

Best Regards

Take Care all of you

Let's just say I own a few too many...

I have way too many to list in a single post.

I know this count pales in comparison to other professionals out there but my magic library consists of:

25 different Audio Tape & CD series tapes
69 different Magic Books
100 different booklets (I also included lecture notes in this category)
90 different video tapes

And yes I’ve read and viewed all of them… now ask me if I remember…

I own far too many, but I do have a few favorites:

Magic and Showmanship - Henning Nelms
Five Points of Magic and the Magic Way - Juan Tamariz
The Fitzkee Trilogy - Darrell Fitzkee
Strong Magic - Darwin Ortiz
Brain Food - David Parr
all of my Eugene Burger Books
and of course, the king of them all, the Tarbell Course in Magic - Dr. Tarbell

These are the books I read and re-read. Some I have had for over 30 years.

Richard Green

Also way too many to list. As for favorites...

Punx Trilogy
Poinc The Practitioner
anything by Eugene Burger
Michael Close Workers
Harry Lorayne The Magic Book
Simon Lovel Simon Says

etc etc etc

Not much in this newbie's collection

Idiot's Guide to Magic
Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
Bobo's Modern Coin Magic
David Roth's Basic Coin Magic video

In reference to Karl Fulves's books, I've racked my brains and I can't think of any self-working aspects of coin magic (unless there's a gimmick involved?).

Don't just buy some tricks.

Buy a few decent basic books.

For a new magician (and old-timers, too)there is a wealth of material in many
old magic books. Dover Publications has a vast library of reprinted books that the copyrites have expired.

It is a real treasure trove of things that can keep you busy for YEARS.

You needn't spend a lot of money doing this stuff because a lot of the material was published before magic shops were a common thing, and most magicians had to use whatever was handy.

Dover has books priced from under $5.00 US.

You can get them locally at most major chain book stores (Borders, etc. in US).

If they don't have the title you want, they will order it and you usually get it in a few days.

My favorite Dover editions that I am now working out of is "Abbotts Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks", and "Hugarts Magic Manual".

The Abbotts costs $10, and just steal some of mom's clothesline (core it) and you are in business. You could probably work up a decent routine with the stuff in that ancient book.

You will have dozens of great effects, instead of a bunch of junk some dealer sold you.

Here's the URL for Dover's "magic shop".

Link

Another point in favor of do-it-yourself magic is that when you buy a "storebought effect, you are paying A LOT for the
"secret(s)" involved. Consequently, the actual product will not in many cases be quality goods.

Putting together things yourself will let you control the final cost and its quality.

I have built up my magic library over the past 16 years.

Try to check out every second hand bookstore you can find. You'll be amazed what kind of treasures they might have.

My oldest book dates from 1903 !

Steve

re;
"Another point in favor of do-it-yourself magic is that when you buy a "storebought effect, you are paying A LOT for the
"secret(s)" involved. Consequently, the actual product will not in many cases be quality goods. Putting together things yourself will let you control the final cost and its quality."

Yes, books have always been the best value, and some great knowledge can be obtained inexpensively from the Dover range. But regarding the comment "Consequently the actual product will not in many cases be quality goods" this really does depend on the manufacturing source. Some are mass manufactured in third world countries (but some in the USA) in a cheap form for children and considered toys. Some are cheaper rip offs of what were once quality props. This is the result of the mass marketing of magic, the dumbing down and conversion for the toy market.

There are some dealers who do not sell what you would call junk at all. From makers of magical leather goods like Ray Piatt and Roy Roth, to woodworking craftsman and illusion builders like Martini who take great pride in producing quality goods. There are lots more. Quality has a price tag attached, but it usually works right and lasts longer.

But yes, books are the best buy for increasing one's magical knowledge, and Dover books are one of the rare examples of something good costing very little.

Paul.

The best ones I own are as follows:
Expert at the card table - Erdnase
Cards on the table - Sadowitz
Cardzones - Duffie and Sadowitz
Expert card technique - Hugard and Braue
Encyclopedia of Ciggarette Magic - Clarke
Art of Astonishment 1 - Harris

I own way to may books. That's because I am a magic-holic.

If I could do just 1 percent of the material that I have, I would be one "hot shot" magician. But it sure is nice when something is referenced in a book and you can go to that book and read up on it.

Russ

I am too!
I keep on looking for new stuff and I can't definitely visit a Magic Shop as I have this compulsive tendency to spend everything I have and more on books and videos

Over 500 books and 99% of them are on cards. Dating back from the 1800's to present day.

Though, I do not buy as many now as I used to!

While I do not have the largest library around, it is a fairly extensive one BUT my library IS a reference library. I can look up pretty much anything within it, so it is a good working library. Such favourites as "Greater Magic", The Tarbell Course in Magic, "Magick", "Expert Card Technique", "Sach's Sleight of Hand", "The Illustrated History of Magic" are ones I reference a lot.

There are also the gems that I just love to pull off the shelf to re-read such as "Illustrated Magic" or the ones I just open somewhere to rediscover an effect I forgot or discover one I never learned such as Becker's "Stunners", "Mind, Myth and Magic", "Semi-Automatic Card Tricks" (any volume), "Syzygy" (any issue),"Art of Astonishment", Apocalypse (any issue) to name a few.

The ones I truly dislike, or the ones that have one effect in the book that was good (and the rest suck) I tend to get rid of.

PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat

I am just beginning to build my library, here's where I started:

Self-working card tricks - Fulves
Expert Coin Magic - Bobo
Royal Road to Card Magic

Encyclopedia of Card Magic Vol 1 - Daryl
Easy to Master Card Miracles - Ammar

For a long time, I only bought books as they have always been the best value. There is so much poor quality props out there and the good stuff is not only very expensive but also limited in quantities. I have a decent library but my favorites are 1)the hardback "magazine" editions like Apocalypse, Richard's Almanac, IBIDEM, Pallbearer's Reviews, Kabbala; and 2)the autographed manuscripts from Ed Marlo.

I also have a small library on magic but what I do have are good.

Bobo coin magic
Roth expert coin magic
Wilsons complete course in magic
Ammar cups and balls
and another Ammar book on magic

A small amount but, so far it works for me.

Bobo's(paperback and hardback)
Stars of Magic
Drawing room decptions
Wilson Complete Course of Magic
Tarbell set
AoA set
a few old books I picked up, that I can't remember
...come to think I can't think of all them...oh and abt 900 magazines ranging from a 1917 issue of the Spinx, Hugards magic monthly, to Current Magic and Genii, with lots a stuff in between.

Heck I have books I have not even opened yet. I guess the DVD's and Video's took priority...LOL

the magic books I own (from memory)
are:
modern coin magic - bobo
encyclopedia of card tricks - hugard
expert card technique - hugard
the art of magic and sleight of hand - einhorn
houdini's spirit world dunningers psychic revelations
practical mental magic - annemann
magic illustrated dicyionary - lamb
houdini's secrets revealed - brandeth

and a few others I don't remember