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dyoung Special user 898 Posts |
Phill Smith - "Mythology Codex"
Unanimously voted for by this "jury", for it's sheer size and quality of content. And for being the most beautiful magic book ever produced! Congratulations! All the best, Dan and the completely secret, but totally real, jury. |
Mark_Chandaue Inner circle Essex UK 4187 Posts |
I love Phil’s book but I do think there are other contenders for book of the year including Drew Backenstoss’ Architect of the mind and of course Maximum entertainment 2. Whilst they don’t match Phil’s book for either size or beauty they both have fantastic content. Under the normal 3 vote system those 3 would be my votes. I think Timon’s book also deserves a special mention.
Also whilst I don’t have it myself I think the Johnny Thompson book would get a lot of votes. Mark |
dyoung Special user 898 Posts |
Oh yeah, there are of course other good books too. This was more to please Phill as I know he's moping, because there wasnt a Book Of The Year Award for 2019, when he put out his book
All the best, Dan |
EvilClown New user Richmond, VA 74 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 4, 2020, Mark_Chandaue wrote: Thompson book came out in 2018. |
Mark_Chandaue Inner circle Essex UK 4187 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 4, 2020, EvilClown wrote: Ah doesn’t time fly although it was reprinted in 2019 which means I suspect it would receive votes. Whether they would be counted I couldn’t say. Mark |
Mr Matthews New user UK 36 Posts |
MFYL is the book of the year for me.
Both in terms of content and overall design. Architect of the mind is also excellent. David |
MorrisCH Veteran user 393 Posts |
Truth Fable by Ben Blau without a doubt ...
I'm a card guy and not really into mental magic but Ben's routine is just pure beauty. This was published early in 2019 but it still remain my favorite in 2019 |
landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Magic Is My Weed by Steve Spill; Fantastic suggestions and routines for performing in a formal platform or stage situation. Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years by Gerald Deutsch; How to do close-up magic in an informal situation for friends and family without looking like an egotistical amateur. Hundreds of routines included.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
Rachmaninov Inner circle 1076 Posts |
Architect of the mind is a hard bound 326 pages book at $ 28.49. Mythology codex is more than 6 times that price…I really think most big magic books are overpriced nowadays.
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DrewBstoss Special user SLC, Utah 582 Posts |
Had to jump into the conversation...
Rachmaninov - sorry to inform you, but AotM is only available direct from me and costs a bit more than $30. You are referencing a pirate site that would only send an unauthorized PDF (if they send anything at all). Let's not support pirated material. (I'm not claiming that you, Rachmaninov, are ) Cost is a measure of VALUE and therefore, depending on your preferences and priorities, is somewhat subjective (excluding production costs). As a consumer of magic/mentalism myself I personally view all of my purchases through the lens of an investment in my show (and by extension, earning potential). That means I'm happy to invest decent money in quality ideas. Best wishes, Drew
"The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before." Neil Gaiman
Please consider subscribing to my newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hmdnUX |
Rachmaninov Inner circle 1076 Posts |
Drew,
I just checked the site where I saw the very low price of your book. It was indeed a download file only on a Chinese site. Chinamagicsupply.com . How do you know it’s a pirate website ? It’s seems I’m a little uninformed about piracy ! I always shop in US, UK or French well established websites, and I’ve never had any problem. I understand and agree with all your thoughts, especially with the subjectivity of value. I have awesome books in my library, which costed almost nothing, like The card magic of Paul Lepaul (around $15 at the time of the purchase, new copy), or Prism by Max Maven ($30). 20 years ago, almost all big books were $40, and you could make an entire career with a bunch of them only. Now they are between $ 60 and $ 300 (Atlas Brooking Train Tracking for example, that I purchased for $ 297 directly from him). It’s twice to 10 times the price we were used to pay 15 to 20 years ago. Our income has not improved that much. The quality of the books neither (almost everything I’m reading now is derivative of old ideas, or « my take on » ideas. I only learn a few touches here and there, which often make everything, granted). So I’m sticking with the idea that most books are overpriced nowadays. And it doesn’t help the market. It reminds me the idea of a bubble in he stock market, but without the rush for it. So quality is very subjective too. I would make an exception for he Hermetic press and Vanishing books which are always top notch on every aspects, and at an affordable price. Best Mat |
landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
If we're to believe the inflation calculator below, it's not strange that what cost $40 twenty years ago now costs $60. That's just the general inflation of basic goods over those years. So it doesn't seem that magic books are too out of line (except for those ridiculous $300 manuscripts) with the rest of the economy.
https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/in......ear=1999 One reason it may seem worse is because at the bottom end, the rate of increase in income was *less* than the rate of inflation. So twenty years ago, the minimum federal wage was $5.15 an hour; if it had increased at the same rate of inflation as the calculator above indicates, the minimum rate would now be $7.89. In fact, the federal rate is still $7.25. So workers on the bottom end have lost ground and have a *worse* economic standard of living than twenty years ago.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
Ray Haining Inner circle Hot Springs, AR 1907 Posts |
Going back 40 years: "If the federal minimum wage in 1968 had kept up with inflation and productivity, it would now be $22 an hour. Instead, it's $7.25." [NYT article, "Who Killed the Knapp Family?" (1/9/20)]
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Chris K Inner circle 2544 Posts |
Rachmaninov has 2 issues. First is his lack of understanding of piracy. If the author of the book tells you that it’s piracy, that’s literally as definitive as it gets. He also obviously doesn’t “always shop in US, UK, or French” websites since he admitted to buying from a Chinese site. Hopefully this conversation is educational. He can always ask here if something seems too good to be true.
His second issue is that he’s making what’s known as a category error. His argument is that books were cheaper before. He didn’t put dates but that’s irrelevant. Right now, on Amazon, you can pick up Practical Mental Magic for less than $12. It’s probably even cheaper on Lybrary.com. Self-Working Mental Magic is less than $9. Both have amazing effects (and a lot of them). I have a strong feeling that he doesn’t have them yet spent $300 on Train Tracking (which is worth it but an exemplar of the category error). But as you start purchasing items made for professionals, of course it’s going to be more expensive. You can pick up a cheap guitar but do you think a high end guitar would be the same price? But whatever, the more people priced out, the better for me. I’m done pretending I’m sad that good mentalism is getting pricier, there’s enough out there for anyone to make a career of while spending less than $300 total. |
Rachmaninov Inner circle 1076 Posts |
Chris,
I never admitted anywhere to shop in China ! You should read again my post. I’ve never shopped there ! 95 % of my books come from L&L Publishing, Camirand Academy, Hank Lee’s in the 90’s. Now from Penguin, Vanishing and a few others, amongst them the authors themselves. I admitted my lack of knowledge on piracy. And my question was sincere : how do you manage to distinguish real offers from piracy ? By paying attention to very low prices is a good sign I think. Any other advices are welcome. Saying that books were cheaper before is not an argument, it’s a fact… And a bunch of Dover’s cheap books examples is not sufficient to establish your point. I have the books you cite. My library is more than 1500 books, spanning from 19 th century books to the latest ones. So I think I have a pretty good view of contents and prices for the last 25 years, since I began magic in my late teens, before the web arrived in our lives. « Items made for professionals » means really nothing in magic, and in a lot of other fields too. There is way more good mentalism in Anneman than in train tracking. And it’s 25 times cheaper. None was written with amateur or pros in mind. All is depending on what you are going to do with it, not the material itself. Quality is not always linked to price, by far. Granted, for manufactured objects, price and quality are closely proportional. But for example, in the piano field, most of the Steinway grand pianos sold stay in wealthy people living room, being never played. And in the meantime, some great pros pianist study scores on straight cheap pianos because they can’t afford better ones… And don’t forget that most readers of those « pro items » are amateurs… I’ve very often heard that you can make a career with just a handful of books. You say $ 300 would be sufficient. If someone tries to make a career with just a few books, I wish him good luck because he will learn the very hard way. Maybe it’s fine for some. I would say that a few hundreds of books is necessary if you want to get deep understanding of history, meanings and ends in magic, and grasp the huge quantities of principles, theories and techniques at work for an engaging performance. |
Kimura Special user 519 Posts |
The Eugene Burger book is by far the best - sadly it's been a bad year over all, imo.
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Wordsworth Veteran user 324 Posts |
I'm actually not sure what books I'd even vote for this year, but I hope there is a vote for 2019. I find this a good way to find out about good books that I might have missed.
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