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Thought this might be a bit of fun. As I sit here on my PC I have a shelf of books in front of me. Thought it might be fun to list them all, and thereby give you an indication of what my magic is and where it comes from. Would be great if you listed the books in front or around you at this moment as well. And no cheating! No naming books that aren't actually visible just because you think they ought to be mentioned. Just name the ones you can see! Okay, mine are:

The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer
Tales From the Crypt volumes 1 - 3
Essential Dr Strange
Tarot Plain & Simple by Anthony Louis
13 Steps to Mentalism
Idiot's Guide to Palmistry
Full Facts Book of Cold Reading
Practical Mental Magic
Confessions of a Medium by Anon
$1000 Secret Seance by Docc Hilford
The First Psychic by Peter Lamont
78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack
Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle
Raffles by EW Hornung
Collected Ghost Stories - MR James
Rise of the Indian Rope Trick by Peter Lamont

Yep, I think that particular shelf says a LOT about me!

In line of sight/arms reach of me at the moment (left to right, not counting spines I can't read or non-magic related books):

Reality is Plastic
Practical Mental Effects
Peek Performances
Tarbell Course 1-8
Artful Mentalism of Bob Cassidy
Theatre of the Mind: Act Two
The Psychology of the Psychic
Maximum Entertainment
Sleight of Hand
Performing Dark Arts
PRISM
Naked Mentalism II
Strong Magic
Magic, Stage Illusions, Special Effects and Trick Photography
Full Facts of Cold Reading
Expert at the Card Table
Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic
Art of Astonishment 1-3

dungeon siege 2 stratergy guide
everything else is with my dvds and tv in the other room.

The Books of Wonder vol. 1
Tools of Critical Thinking
Flim-Flam
The Languages of Logic


(I'm in my dorm, away from my home and bookshelf... )

Just looking at what's on the bookshelf (and scattered on the floor around my desk) I'm also excluding books I haven't actually read

13 steps to mentalism by Corinda
Mind, Myth and Magick by T.A Waters
Old possum's book of practical cats by T.S Eliot
The Magicians Nephew, Voyage of the Dawntreader, The Horse and his boy by C.S Lewis
Guards! Guards!, Hogfather, Wyrd sisters, Mort, Monstrous Regiment, Pyramids, Darwins watch, The Truth, Small Gods, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum, Witches Abroad, Strata, The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Carter beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
The Book of English Magic by Philip Carr and Richard Heygate
The Complete Magician's Tables by Stephen Skinner
A book of Insult Edited by Nick Webb
The Demon Headmaster strikes again by Gillian Cross
Matilda by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
The Horror! The Horror! Comicbooks the government didn't want you to read! by various authors
52 volume 3 by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Griffen.

Divine Comedy (oxford classic edition) - Dante
Paradise Lost - John Milton
Book of Lies - Paul Brook
On Mephisto's Shoulder - Paul Brook
Scripting & Storytelling for Paranormal Entertainers - Stephen Ward
Vo Du Magick - Baba Gede
Capricornian Tales - Christian Chelman
13 steps to mentalism
Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult - Ronald Pearsall

Quite a mixed bag for me, just in this room I can see...

Mark Wilson's Complete Course,
Rice's Encyclpedia of Silk Magic Vols 1&2,
Practical Mental Magic,
Intimate Act of Choreography,
Contemporary Choreography,
The Art of Drawing Manga,
Maniac Eyeball: The Unspeakable Confessions of Salvador Dali,
The Secret Life of Salvador Dali,
Daniel's Running Formula,
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon,
Digital Illustration and Art Techniques,
Jack Kent Tillar- Trio

The entire room is filled with book shelves. But when I look right in front of me, at the shelf above the computer, I can see:

The Future Cypher by Dr David Pasig, futurist
Mutants, by Prof. Armand Marie Leroi
The Blank Slate, Prof. Steven Pinker
Courts of Chaos, Roger Zelazny
A few issues of the Scientific American magazine
The Royal Road to Card Magic
3510 and Building Blocks Extended by Luke Jermay
Sleights of Mind
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Street Magic

Nowt in front of me this second as my work desk is clear. However, the last books I picked up (or saw this morning) before heading out to work were:

- Expert Card Technique (Hugard)
- Card Collective (Paul Gordon)

I'm in my bedroom, which is largely shelves so quite a lot visible.

Working from top down

Encyclopaedia of card tricks-Hugard
Easy card tricks
Mind magic-Mark Lemanza
Self working mental magic
Self working card tricks
The Shiels effect
Blink-Malcolm Gladwell
Derren Brown-Tricks of the mind
The royal road to card magic
Scarne on card magic
Swami booklet
ESP
Practical mental magic
Modern coin magic
Hidden in plain sight
Learn magic-Hay
101 amazing tricks-Bob Longe
Just so stories
Flowers for Algernon
Denis Wheatley-The Irish witch
Denis Wheatley-A bill for a body
A devils chaplain-Dawkins
The book of lies-Crowley
Haunted Ghouls in the east riding
The witches of North Yorkshire
Haunted places in N Yorkshire
Inquisition-Toby Green
Shakey-Neil Young biography
Holy Bible
Bury my heart at wouneded knee-Dee Brown
Renegade-Mark E Smith
Magic with everyday objects-Schnidler
The book of English magic
Orwell-why I write
Machiavelli-The prince
The Communist manifesto
Marcus Aurelius-Meditations
WH Auden
Philip Larkin
Robert Burns
Thomas Hardy-poems
A time to dance and a time to die
The black death
Robin Hood-Carola Oman
Venus in furs
Hamlet
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The island of Dr Moreau
In the country of the blind
Two hours to doom
The melancholy death of oyster boy
Dickens ghost stories
Neil Gaiman-smoke and mirrors
The call of chuthulu
Terry Jones-Eric the viking
Interview with the vampire
The vampire Lestat
Queen of the dammed
Sheridan Lefanu-In a glass darkly
Children of the night
Elizabeth Gaskell-Tales of mystery and suspense
Lovecraft-horror in the museum
The casebook of Carnaki ghost finder
R.Howard-The right hand of doom
Aylmer Vance: Ghost seer
The werewolf pack
MR James
Dracula's Guest
The devil rides out
The magic far away tree
Lord of the rings
The Oxford library of words and phrases
Servants of the supernatural
Jack the Ripper-the celebrity cases
Black Hart-guide to tarot
13 steps to mentalism
The history boys
Voices in the wind
Basic baloon sculptures
Folk tales of the british isles
Che Guvera back on the road
Palmistry- Johnny Fincham
Dracula
Summer Of Blood-Dan Jones
The war magician
Goodbye to all that
Crusading in the crusader states-Jotishky
The garden of the strange
Rolling stones covers
The Peel Sessions

Then on the floor

The first Psychic
Hydesville in history
Life in the middle ages
The early years foundation curriculum
The walking dead vol. 1

Now you're just showing off...!!!

There would be more, but there is a bottle of whisky in the way of several and a tub of jelly beans blocking some. As I live largely out of one room I have a lot in it.

In my University room from the bed I can see (scattered on the floor)

Join Me - Danny Wallace
Quirkology - Richard Wiseman
Nemesis - Mark Millar
Did you Spot the Gorilla - Richard Wiseman
Vegan with a Vengence - over 150 delicious cheap animal-free recipes (don't ask...)
An Introduction to Health Psychology
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Student's Guide to Cognitive neuroscience
Front magazine
another issue of Front magazine
another issue of Front magazine
The Accidental Billionaires - Ben Mezrich
Steal Yourself: how to be a pickpocket
The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins
The Athesit's Guide to Christmas
Denialism - Michael Specter
Why Does e=mc2? - Brian Cox
The Luck Factor - richard wiseman
Paranormality - Richard Wiseman
59 Seconds - Richard Wiseman
An Introduction to Parapsychology
Irratonality - Stuart Sutherland
Sand: A Journey Through Science and the Imagination - Michael Welland
Evolutionary Psychology - The New Science of the Mind
Psychology - The Science of Mind and Behaviour
The Book of Lies - Paul Brook

3 guesses the kind of degree I do

Though if it were purely magic related books:

The Book of Lies - Paul Brook
Quirkology - Richard Wiseman

What can I say? I make up my own stuff now! Haha!

My books are elsewhere at the moment, but the one's that are next to my bed are (roughly in order):

Fyodor Dostoevsky- crime and punishment
Relativity: special, general and cosmological W Rindler
Mathematics for chemists- Kynch
Schopenhauer- world as will and representation
Quantum Electrodynamics- Richard Feynmann
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
Corinda's 13 steps
Human Knowledge- Bertrand Russell
Wholeness and the implicate order- David Bohm
Edexcel GCSE Science textbook
The Weimar Republic 1918-1945
Tipler Physics
Kant- Critique of Pure Reason

Oops, I've also checked my bag and found:
The communist manifesto Marx
Isaac Newton and his apple

And, I can only urge otherwise than to read too much into this, there is a pocket bible in my coat.

Currently in sight...

Sleights of Mind
13 Step to Mentalism

(Hundreds more in the other room...)