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In Ellusionists' Crash Course 2 there is a book called Expert Of The Card Table. Is this book any good? Where can I buy this book because on Amazon three different versions popped up each by different authors!
Can anyone help?!

The original was written by S.W Erdnase, if that's any help.

alx_e wrote:In Ellusionists' Crash Course 2 there is a book called Expert Of The Card Table. Is this book any good? Where can I buy this book because on Amazon three different versions popped up each by different authors!
Can anyone help?!

I think you mean Expert at the Card Table by SW Erdnase. This is a classic text, but if you are a beginner I would stay away from it for the moment.

Oh and another thing there is three prints of this book, of course the newest will be the most updated, but are there any major differences?
Two versions are written by S W. Ernase, whilst one says Samuel R. Ernase is this just Amazon's mistake?

alx_e wrote:Oh and another thing there is three prints of this book, of course the newest will be the most updated, but are there any major differences?
Two versions are written by S W. Ernase, whilst one says Samuel R. Ernase is this just Amazon's mistake?

There's sometimes subtle differences between editions... I have two editions of Royal Road, and although slight, the differences won't really change the world!

alx_e wrote:Oh and another thing there is three prints of this book, of course the newest will be the most updated, but are there any major differences?
Two versions are written by S W. Ernase, whilst one says Samuel R. Ernase is this just Amazon's mistake?

I can't speak to the number of versions but the core text has not been updated since the original 1902 publication (as far as I know). So these are likely to be separate publishers, with the "Samuel R. Ernase" being a mistype (hopefully).

If you really want to get this book, can I advise that you try to get hold of a copy of Vernons revelations instead. This provides a comprehensive commentary on the original text by the professor himself.

EDIT: Note its pretty hard to get hold of. There is a similar text called
Annotated Erdnase by Darwin Ortiz which maybe more helpful. Although I can't provide a review.

Again, if your a beginner, there are a few other texts that you should look at first.

This book is well out of copywrite. Please do not buy a download version, especially from Ellusionist. Send me your email address and I'll (respond accordingly) Can I recomend you look at Royal Road to Card Magic instead though? I will send you this as well.

Actually if this isn't allowed by the site let me know and I won't (Edited slightly by Mods to be on the safe side).

Yeah sure no I wasn't going to jump the gun!Just working my way through Royal Road and cross referencing with Card College, just wanted to know whether it was worth buying but from what you've said it probably seems a bit too advanced at the moment!Thanks for the help

It would certainly be a worthwhile addition to your magic library though. I would reccomend just picking up a copy of the latest dover softback addition. Then you can see how much you like the material, before you consider one of the more costly versions.

Re: the copyright. It is correct that this book is now not covered due to the expanse of time (100 years) since it was written. So you can find it freely availiable through the internet. Personally for such a small price i would rather have a real copy (or atleast both).

The Keymaster wrote:Re: the copyright. It is correct that this book is now not covered due to the expanse of time (100 years) since it was written. So you can find it freely availiable through the internet. Personally for such a small price i would rather have a real copy (or atleast both).

Careful, thats only true of the core text. I agree however, may as well spend a few pounds and get a hardcopy.

I own both the PDF file and the hard copy. Hard copy for reading at home computer file for reading at work
I much prefer books to the files but it isn't easy to pretend to work with a book in your hand

It is true: although the TEXT is out of copyright, the VEHICLE medium and it's edits may not be.

As PDJamez says, you can't beat owning a hardcopy of a reference book. It makes it all the easier to use.

Although obviously, that's our opinion.

I can certainly see the positive side of the argument for having a hard copy over a "soft" copy (on computer)

There is a substantial argument the other way though. Perhaps it doesn't apply to books as much because you have the contents page and can look up what you want, but as a student I have had much bother with journal articles and trying to find the references I need. It's a bu**er when you've got a 35 page journal detailing someones study and you need to the bit on Episodic Memory Buffering or _______________(Insert your own complicated terminology here) which is probably only three or four sentences. No amount of technology can find this quickly for you in a hard copy of a journal article, but you can with a PDF file you can type in your key words and go straight to it, and even copy and paste the sentence into your essay if you're quoting them. Works well when I've got a 10000 word dissertation to write. 3000-4000 of it is an introduction on what other people have done in previous research and I'll be shafted if I've gotta read through 40-50 different journal articles to find the theories I've gotta cite. You dig?

Very true. It's super handy to ahve it all indexed and combined with the search function. All my PDFs are even split into chapters.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I guess its all down to understanding how your going to use the material and then choosing the appropriate medium.