Mark Wilson's Course in Magic is till excellent. There are so many books on close up out there, you need just one or two to spark the imagination. Martin Gardner's Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic is hard to find but an excellent resource. Also I would recommend the late Bob Wagner's book "Master Notebook of Magic". Great material, also anything by the late Karrell Fox.

Charlie

Carneycopia from John Carney.

Someone above also mentioned John Luka's book. His book Uncovered is very good. I use several items out of this book, including his card to wallet, and his handling of ambitious card.

Several (many?) of these books are out of print and possibly rare. I own Curry's book. It's $90 and up -- way up -- on Amazon. However, they are classic titles and worth getting your hands on.

Oops. My bad. Apparently, Curry's World's Breyond was reprinted in 2009. Amazon seems not to know of this edition.


Given the reprinting, the top-priced ~ $300 collectible copy seems to be not worth it. (It is listed as the revised edition and has no signature or other collectible features except for its mint condition.)

Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Apocalypse....

all four books, vols. 1-20.

Anything by Karl Fulves, all at low Dover prices. As well as the SW series, look out for "Easy Magic" and the "Big Book".

Barry

Since it's been almost a year from the original posting of the question, I'm curious what you ended up with, JCheng, and how you like it.

I got Amateur Magician's Handbook and the Tarbell course. They are really good!

If you like Amateur Magician's Handbook and the Tarbell Course you should also like Harry Lorayne's The Magic Book. Another good book....a must have, actually...is Stars of Magic. Both these books have great card tricks in them, but the non-card items are very strong.

Oh, and don't forget the classics such as Sach's Sleight of Hand (you can get the cheap Dover version) and Magic Without Apparatus.

You can't go wrong with the Royal Road to Card Magic.

I'm surprised Stars of Magic isn't on here. That's an amazing book and cheap to boot.

Carneycopia from John Carney.
And...every book from John Carney!

YuYen

The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley
Art of Astonishment
Apocalypse
Stars of Magic
Books of Wonder
The Dai Vernon Book of Magic
Impossibilia
Smoke and Mirrors
Tarbell
Carnycopia
New Modern Coin Magic
The Magic of Michael Ammar
13 Steps to mentalism
Paramiracles
Card College
Expert Card Technique
The Art of Close-up Magic

Keep an eye out, or both for that matter, for Anomalies later this year.

Close up magic with all sorts of things within arms reach at any given time.

DO