Hello all,

I have a few magic books I'm going to be donating to two nearby public libraries. Which got me thinking, I remember one book on magic I found in the NY Public Library was an old book by Bill Tarr. I can't remember the title of the book. For those of you who started magic from books at your local library, what were the titles you came across? Thanks!




Roberto

Now You See It, Now You Don't or The Second Now You See it, Now You Don't...?

There may have been a third soft cover large format book, but I cannot remember the title.

Later was a hardbound book of his notes called something like The Now You See It, Now You Don't Notebook.

Julie

That third book was 101 Easy-to-Learn Classic Magic Tricks.

When I started in the 70s, it was hard to find reading materials. The first books I came across were from public libraries. The one I remember the most was John Scarne on Card Tricks.

When my childhood library relocated, I was lucky enough to obtain many of the actual books with which I began my magical journey. I have both Joseph Leeming books Fun with magic and More Fun with magic, Clayton Rawson's The Golden Book of Magic, Walter Gibson's The Master Magicians and both Blackstone books, Secrets of Magic and Modern Card Tricks.

Others that I remember fondly are the aforementioned Scarne book as well as his Scarne's Magic Tricks ,Hokus Pokus by Ib Permin, Pure Magic! by Henry Gross, Patrick Page's The Big Book of Magic and Henry Hay's The Amateur Magician's Handbook .

I could go on and on about this topic as I regularly visited about nine or ten libraries near me when I was younger to find treasures. One library had all of Bruce Elliott's books and another had the entire Tarbell course!

I spent a lot of time in section 793.8 and developed a love of magic, libraries and books because of it. Good memories.

You can still find the "Book Club Edition" (1950) combining Scarne's Card Tricks book and his Scarne's Magic Tricks book into one delightful hardcover. There's a lifetime of GOOD MAGIC here for a mere pittance.

Shop e-bay and other used book sources for either the combined publication or the separate editions and you won't be sorry. (Great illustrations, too!)

Julie

I second that!

Purchased mine many years ago when I was just beginning in magic and started buying magic books.

Someone once said that if you want to fool someone, get the trick out of a magic book.