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I am new to magic myself and i considered buying the one volume but then decided i would buy the 8 volumes seperately.

I am currently reading volume 1 and i am finding it fascinating, not just for the tricks {as you certainly wont use some of them} but the history of magic chapter and the thinking behind some of the effects has really opened my mind.

for me the joy of the 8 volumes, over any other version is how you can dip into them over the years, when you need inspiration for a particular effect.
we all get asked to do a gig with a theme, or if your in a magic club, your always faced with that do a trick night ,. when the tricks are something you dont normaly do... Tarbell is the treasure chest , which contains the gold.
and.. you can take a volume down the pub, sit in the garden, and sup a cool pint in the sun, whist reading up on a series of effects. My I dea of heaven that.

another thing i have done when ive had a few of the lads around is Tarbell Roulette. you randomly chose a volume, then open it at random.. then you have to perform an effect from the chapter you have opened at.

Sounds like a great game Dale, have you ever been unable to perform? [with the books i mean lol ]

daleshrimpton wrote:for me the joy of the 8 volumes, over any other version is how you can dip into them over the years, when you need inspiration for a particular effect.
we all get asked to do a gig with a theme, or if your in a magic club, your always faced with that do a trick night ,. when the tricks are something you dont normaly do... Tarbell is the treasure chest , which contains the gold.
and.. you can take a volume down the pub, sit in the garden, and sup a cool pint in the sun, whist reading up on a series of effects. My I dea of heaven that.

another thing i have done when ive had a few of the lads around is Tarbell Roulette. you randomly chose a volume, then open it at random.. then you have to perform an effect from the chapter you have opened at.

Exactly how my friend and I used to come up with bizarre effects, sort of. We would find all this odd stuff spread it out on a table and then we would each create an effect using those 'props'

At the risk of being sacrilegious, I'm going to sound a negative note here. I have the full 8-volume set and yes, there is lots of good stuff in there, more than enough for a lifetime in magic. You can find complete listings here:

http://magicref.tripod.com/books.htm

However, some of his instructions are terse to the point of incomprehensibility, and the diagrams tend to be small and muddy. For example, I tried to follow his four-ring routine in volume 4, and gave up at the point where he told me to reverse my last three moves (figs 129 to 126). And can anyone do the rubber-band trick on page 131 of volume 1?

Despite the above comments, it's the encyclopedia of magic and it's what I'd take to a desert island.

Barry