talkmagic.co.uk

I have spent all evening last night and the last 4 hours reading through my 1995 reprint hardback (picked it up for £2 and a coffee!) and, although it has less material than some of those described, it is still HUGE and would be a bargain at ten times the price I paid. To describe it as anything less than encyclopaedic would be a bit mean! However, it has highlighted a few issues for newcomers to magic (I studied for a couple of months, then had to stop to finish my degree, so I'm basically back to square 1)

1. I will say it again - the book is HUGE. It's a bit intimidating, compared to the royal road, which neatly works you through the book (I've misplaced mine ). However, each section of the book is a self-contained area, and does work through a fairly natural progression of techniques and effects. It even covers getting the same or similar effect with a different method - very important for when punters ask for more!

2. Some of the tricks are certainly aimed at beginners (as they should be) and I actually quite wrongly labelled a trick as being a bit naff before I tried it in front of a mirror. In actual fact, the simplest tricks can often be the most effective, and so I wound up impressing myself just 10 minutes ago!

3. Choose a section you want to do. This is not a book you just work through - it's HUGE. I have recently lost my cards to a particularly excessive drinking game (which proved to be a useful place to show off a couple of tricks!) so I won't bother even looking at the cards section yet. I'm interested in cards, coins and mental magic, so for me right now, a lot of the book is a bit useless.

I think this book is very much a resource material. There are some truly beautiful effects in it, and many of them are completely new to me. I don't think it will be my main area of study (unlike Bobo's, RRTCM etc). However, it will be a reference guide, a revision guide and it will be good for picking up an area of magic before investing in it. It's also a really good read - I'm enjoying just reading the thing, which isn't so much the case with some other texts, which are strictly worded for high concentration and study.

Much love

Paul (a returning newcomer)

just an excellent magic book to begin with as I am a beginner myself i just find it simple, thought out and although on some effects it can be bad at describing generally a great book to begin with! And also very cheap only got it for like £10 off amazong bargain!

mark wilson is quite simply a legend - £10 for 500pages of gold dust, covers nearly every area very briefly of magic (apart from escapism of course) 10/10 for me a must have for anyone!

TheJWalker wrote:BTW If you are truly interested in coins I recommend getting a good DVD. I couldn't make heads or tails of how to pull off allot of the more direct passes and palms until I was shown on DVD (your results may vary).

No pun intended!

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I now intend to finally get around to buying this.

ADD TO CART !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I keep coming back to this book. It's excellent and deserves the 10/10 rating. It has stood the test of time and along with Lorayne's The Magic Book, simply one of the best beginner books ever. Other beginner books that warrant a mention: The Amazing Book of Magic/ Card Tricks- Jon Tremaine, The Illustrated Compendium of Magic Tricks- Nicolas Einhorn, Learn Magic- Henry Hay and Magic a Complete Course- Joshua Jay.