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Rennie
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In Annemann's Jinx, a concept was born: The Five Foot Shelf. The idea is a simple one. If given only five linear feet of shelf space in total, which magic books would you fill it with?
I would like to see some original ideas from the Café regarding this post. When Annemann listed the books, it was many years ago and of course since that time there were numerous publications.
Here is his list:
"Stanyon, Magic (periodical, 15 vols., complete)
Tarbell, Tarbell Course of Magic
Stanyon, The Stanyon Serials,(1-21)
Downs, The Art of Magic
Hilliard, (Sequel to above now being published) [Greater Magic - G.F.]
Sachs, Sleight of Hand
Maskelyne and Devant, Our Magic
Hoffmann, Modern Magic
Hatton and Plate, Magician's Tricks
Clarke, Annals of Conjuring (Magic Wand Nos.121-140)
Houdin, The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic
Thurston, 200 Tricks You Can Do
Thurston, 200 More Tricks You Can Do
Erdnase, The Expert at the Card Table
Annemann, 202 Methods of Forcing
Johnson, The Open Book
Lloyd, Thimble Manipulation
Deveen, Expert Cigarette Manipulation
Hull, Billiard Ball Manipulation (2 parts)
Lippy, Chemical Magic
Houdini, Paper Magic
Hull, 33 Rope Ties and Chain Releases
Gibson, Houdini's Escapes
Hurst, The Georgia Wonder
Houdini, Miracle Mongers
de Laurence, Medical Hypnosis and Magnetic Hypnotism
de Laurence, The Book, of Black Magic and of Pacts
Prince, The Whole Art of Ventriloquism
Roth, Roth Memory Course
Carrington, The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
Abbott, Behind the Scenes with the Mediums
Alexander, The Life and Mysteries of Dr.'Q'
Hull, How To Answer Questions
Dusenbery, Making Magic Pay
Glen, The [Magician's] Road To Fame
Funk and Wagnall's, The Practical Standard Dictionary
Globe Book Company, Elementary Grammar"

So ends Annemann's list. The question is what books should be added to his Five Foot Shelf, and which titles are no longer relevant to the modern magician.
The effect is the important thing, how you achieve it is not.......
Steve Burton
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I would toss out the Lulu Hurst book and Deveen as there are better books on the subjects available now. And where is Lang Neil?
Rennie
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I would add, Modern Coin Magic by Bobo, Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic. Cannot forget The Card Magic of Nick Trost..Also have to add The James File & the Albo Series of books.
Rennie
P.S. I know there is more...help me out here !
The effect is the important thing, how you achieve it is not.......
DustinF
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Some of my favorite books are Practical Mental Magic by Annemann, 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda, and the Books of Wonder by Tommy Wonder.
Bill Palmer
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Annemann did not write Practical Mental Magic or Practical Mental Effects as the book was (almost) first called. The original title of the book is Annemann's Practical Mental Effects. It was compiled and edited from various writings of Theo Annemann by John J. Crimmins.
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Philippe Noël
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Hi Rennie,
If you look attentively at Annemann's list, you'll see that it is not only composed of magic books.
Annemann considered all the books that were useful to a would be magician, magicbooks or not.
I think that the year of publication of that list is also very important: 1935.
Rennie
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Hi Philippe,
I am awaree that the list is outdated, that is why I stated "When Annemann listed the books, it was many years ago and of course since that time there were numerous publications."

I would really like an updated list, any help would be appreciated.
Rennie
The effect is the important thing, how you achieve it is not.......
Philippe Noël
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Hi Rennie,
Here are my 10 favorite books of magic in my lybrary:
First and above all is Mastering the Art of Magic by Eugene Burger which has made me understand that the presentation of a trick and the interaction with the people are as important as the quality of my tricks.
Then come in no particular order:
The Expert at the Card Table by Erdnase
Expert Card Technique by Hugard and Braue
Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue
The Card Magic of Le Paul by Paul Le Paul
Stars of magic
The Magic Book by Harry Lorayne
The Collected Almanac by Richard Kaufman
The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings by Mike Maxwell
Card College(5 volumes)by Roberto Giobbi
ekins
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I don't see how we can update Annemann's list since everyone's list is going to be different. I think it might be more interesting to put together the lists from contemporary magicians. You will be able to see what's important for each of them and what books show up on multiple lists.

I know I've seen several lists like this over the years. A couple that I can remember right now are:

o John Carney has a list (http://www.carneymagic.com/Reading%20Required.doc.zip)
o Jamie Ian Swiss has a list that I thought at one time he published on his website, but maybe it was only in one of his books. I can't find it on the web.

I would want to get their permission before republishing the list here.

-Brian


-Brian
Bill Palmer
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Another thing to bear in mind is that since Annemann wrote his list, the world has gone metric. So the five foot shelf would have to either be 1.524 meters or, since so many books have been published since then, 5 meters (16.4 feet).

You can never have too many books.
"The Swatter"

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My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups."

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Rennie
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Quote:
On 2011-01-07 01:34, Bill Palmer wrote:
You can never have too many books.

Bill,
No truer words were ever spoken!!
Rennie
The effect is the important thing, how you achieve it is not.......
JNeal
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This was also the subject of several MUM columns in the mid 60's
. Interested parties can look there for many performers favorites...

Regards-
JNeal
visit me @ JNealShow.com
hugmagic
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Not everything has went metric. They tried but Americans generally think in English.

I am a Track and Field offical. They changed all the running events into metric distance but they left the field events in English for high school. Doing College meets we do do the field events in English but the marker boards with the distnaces and heights are in English so people know what is being done. In General, Americans do not think in Metric. It is one yard not 1 meter.

Just a thought.

Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com
email-hugmagic@raex.com
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Rennie
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Quote:
On 2011-01-04 04:28, Philippe Noël wrote:
Hi Rennie,
Here are my 10 favorite books of magic in my lybrary:
First and above all is Mastering the Art of Magic by Eugene Burger which has made me understand that the presentation of a trick and the interaction with the people are as important as the quality of my tricks.
Then come in no particular order:
The Expert at the Card Table by Erdnase
Expert Card Technique by Hugard and Braue
Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue
The Card Magic of Le Paul by Paul Le Paul
Stars of magic
The Magic Book by Harry Lorayne
The Collected Almanac by Richard Kaufman
The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings by Mike Maxwell
Card College(5 volumes)by Roberto Giobbi

Philippe,
I would have to say your are a "Cardician" correct ?
Rennie
The effect is the important thing, how you achieve it is not.......
duanebarry
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Eugene Burger lists his own personal 34-inch shelf of magic volumes in his book, The Performance of Close-Up Magic.

He also includes an annotated bibliography on seance history, investigation and performance in Spirit Theater.
Philippe Noël
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Yes I am Rennie.
mormonyoyoman
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Quote:
On 2011-01-14 11:01, Philippe Noël wrote:
Yes I am Rennie.


No you're not. You're Philippe.

*jeep! and God Bless!
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#ShareGoodness #ldsconf

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Bill Palmer
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Quote:
On 2011-01-11 11:11, duanebarry wrote:
Eugene Burger lists his own personal 34-inch shelf of magic volumes in his book, The Performance of Close-Up Magic.

He also includes an annotated bibliography on seance history, investigation and performance in Spirit Theater.


Burger seldom saves a book as a reference. He is constantly divesting himself of his library. I have never been fortunate enough to be around him when he was in "divestiture" mode.
"The Swatter"

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My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups."

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duanebarry
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He mentions as much in the book, and names many excellent volumes which he has given away.

His 34-inch shelf is comprised of the books he will not give away.
ekins
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Some of you may have noticed that Scott Guinn is selling A LOT of books on the Café to raise money for an adoption. He's selling a lot of highly prized books that would kill me to be selling out of my library. Scott's in the position where he has to make the tough decisions and trim his library down to a precious few books. I asked him what books he was still going to keep and here's his list that he graciously gave me permission to post here.

Quote:
A lot of the stuff I'm keeping is either the "old standards" or stuff that has sentimental value to me because it was given to me or inscribed to me by a friend or mentor. For example, unless my life depended on it, I wouldn't give up my Ray Grismer or Gary Ouellet stuff. I'm keeping Expert Card Technique, which is inscribed to me by my friend David Roth. I'm keeping Las Vegas Kardma, inscribed to me by Allan Ackerman who stayed at my home and with whom I had a marathon card session. I'm keeping What's Up Deck by my good friend and mentor, Aldo Colombini. I'm keeping my Tarbell set, Bobo, The Dai Vernon Book of Magic, the Leipzig and Malini books, Magic by Gosh, most of my Lewis Ganson books, Royal Road and Expert Card Technique, Amateur Magician's Handbook, 13 Steps, and Stars of Magic.
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