talkmagic.co.uk

Just weighing in as pretty close to a beginner, I personally found Card college more useful than RRTCM. Having said that, for the price you can get Royal road, it's worth it for "Design for laughter" alone! Whatever book you are using to learn though I do find it useful to have another book to cross-reference anything you're not sure about, and for a fiver on Amazon there's really no excuse not to own this!

RR is a great book for anyone, who'd like to start with card magic. Very systematic material, and as mentioned - a classic. I remember it was very helpful to me.

I've recently started getting into card magic and bought the Royal Road book. For me it's been really helpful, each section starts with a method and ends with performances that can use the method. It's all nice and detailed too