Big news! Leo Boudreau's books are now available again, thanks to the efforts of Chris Wasshuber at Lybrary.com!

His books are available all on one CD-ROM, or individually:

Psimatrika
Spirited Pasteboards
Skullduggery

For those not familiar with his works, I'll quote Max Maven's introduction from Spirited Pasteboards:

There is an ancient Chinese curse which goes, "May you live in interesting times." Bearing this in mind, it is not without some playful malice that I inform you that you are now holding a tome which is extremely interesting.

As with the author's previous book, Psimatrika, the work in this text is primarily based upon stacking arrangements which generate information via binary codes. The principle is by no means new, but in its seventy-year history as a conjuring method it has remained little-known and woefully under-explored.

Mr. Boudreau clearly wishes to remedy that, with a vengeance.

The material in this volume is almost exclusively done with playing cards. However, don't be misled into thinking that this is simply another book of card tricks. Rather, in this book playing cards are used as a frame-of-reference for the author's adventurous speculations. Once the methodological foundations are understood, a far wider range of applications will present themselves. (For that matter, purely as card tricks there are some hot items to be found here.)

At first, much of this material may strike the reader as being infuriatingly complex and confusing. I would urge perseverance; the rewards are well worth the effort. After absorbing the ideas in this book, you may never look at a pack of cards in quite the same way again.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the recommendation. I was waiting for this one!

Lamberto

Sweet! I've also been waiting for these.

Doh. Having some download problems or I would already be reading skullduggery :/

I couldn't download it either (actually got an empty zip file). Chris, are you there?

I've emailed him. Sounds like a technical difficulty. I got the same empty zip file

Remember thursday's lybrary's newsletter? The e-books are ready in 3 weeks. Guess someone jumped the gun.

It is good now. He had just not uploaded the file yet

Guys, you were too fast. The ebooks are actually not even officially released. I just announced last week in my newsletter that they will be available in a week. But since you all are quite so impatient I uploaded everything and now it should work for everyone. The official announcement will come Tuesday. All Magic Café readers get a two day head start

The response is increadible. I never had this before. Very exciting.

Chris....
Lybrary.com

Fantastic job, Chris! And it's a sunday, and we're already 1 hour awake too early...
I got 'skullduggery'.
First impressions after reading the first 3 effects:
Very reminiscent of a first encounter with programming in college. It seems that everything can be broken down into binary code, so simple, one just had to have the genius to think of it before anyone else. (I have to pinch myself)
A bit like the Matrix trilogy, this is incredibly rich material that is fascinating to this computer geek.

If you ask me, this is one of the best stuff I have every read. I actually had my thoughts to not release it, because it is that good. But then I love my customers more than myself

Honestly, this is top notch material. Read every word from all three books and you will have a weapon at your disposal which 'kills' - literally - because I can envishion that this will give some viewers a heart attack.

Chris....

Anyone who purchases "Spirited Pasteboards" can PM me and I'll pass on my version of "Coloria '87" which uses 3 spectators instead of 6. It's not quite as surefire as the original but the method is better concealed, IMHO.

I'm already trying to make up a nice "murder most foul" booklet. Has anyone forgone the table and just memorized it?

Nope not yet. It doesn't look too tough though. the binary system is just that...a system, no memoirzation there. the only thing you really have to memorize is the first column and then associate the rest with what is in the first column. at least that is how I plan to tackle it. Bordreau's thinking reminds me of Simon Aronson's.

I did it this way when I got the original book. Both the magicians and the laypeople were stunned when they saw this.

I'd say many of the tricks in these books could benefit from adding some memorization to them. In many cases, memorizing could just make them more deceptive and amazing.

My apologies, I pray the poets among you will forgive me,
Sounds within syllables are the forms within the lovely Anabel Lee,
Words in a line to be remembered in a mental game of poetry,
Letters in embedded thought visualized by one and three,
Eyes shut to contemplate the first, then unconstricted forms communicate silently,
Ne'er a sound, yet the code of the Poet is revealed
--and revealed most satisfactorily.

ANABEL LEE
1..I was a child
2..and she was a child
3..In this kingdom by the sea
4..But we loved with a love that was more
5..than love - I and my Anabel Lee;
6..With a love that
7..the winged seraphs of heaven
8..coveted her and me.

THE RAVEN
1..Once upon a midnight dreary
2..while I pondered weak and weary
3..over many a quaint and curious volume
4..of forgotten lore while I nodded
5..nearly napping, suddenly there came
6..a tapping, as of someone gently
7..rapping, rapping at my chamber door
8..Tis some visitor I muttered
9..tapping - Only this and nothing more.

Many thanks,

Can someone recommend one of these books for a starter in order to sample the material before committing to all three (assuming they are all similar)?

Psimatrika
Spirited Pasteboards
Skullduggery

Thanks,
John

Psimatrika

Thanks for the info!!!!