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Friend of mine has just pointed out a site offering Tarbell's complete magic for £50 "The original Tarbell Lessons in magic"
I have often seen the 8 books floating around and have thought about buying them

How essential is this book(s), especially for a newbie like myself?

Thanks in advance

Im now a full time pro, and I've never read them.

I've heard they are good, but I can vouch that they are not essential

Beardy wrote:Im now a full time pro, and I've never read them.

I've heard they are good, but I can vouch that they are not essential

Cheers...its like I have an addiction to buying magic stuff...MUST STOP NOW...but how good is "13 steps..." pretty amazing I am guessing?

if you have tarbell, you dont need any other books, because its all in there. Material from almost every major magical thinker of the last 150 years.

Are they essential?

no... not if you want to spend far more time buying dvds, and hundreds of other books.. Are they important? Oh yes. Because they contain more than tricks.

your bargain price isnt the full set by the way. the original course, was a collection of smaller books, that used to be sent one leason at a time.

daleshrimpton wrote:your bargain price isnt the full set by the way. the original course, was a collection of smaller books, that used to be sent one leason at a time.

Which, incidentally, is in the public domain. The whole original course is available on the learned pig.

I've alway planned to follow each lesson from the beginning and spend a week or so just practicing what's in that lesson. Never got around to doing it though...

Amazon is offering a version for kindle, which has tempted me. But if it doesn't have an active contents page it's going to be a nightmare to navigate.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Origin ... 513&sr=1-1

Jobasha wrote:Amazon is offering a version for kindle, which has tempted me. But if it doesn't have an active contents page it's going to be a nightmare to navigate.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Origin ... 513&sr=1-1

Interesting, I tried reading the version from the learned pig on my Kindle but the fonts are vitually unreadable on there, be interesting to see if they've cleaned it up.

Six quid is an absolute bargain though, hmmmm.

Re Kindle version.

This is on the review page on the Amazon US.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Original-Course-Magic-ebook/dp/B005CBWULE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

"This is NOT the 8 volume set that is pictured in the listing, but the public domain version! The index does not have links to the chapters so this version is difficult to navigate. There are other pdf public domain versions available that are better formatted."

Alfred Borden wrote:Cheers...its like I have an addiction to buying magic stuff...MUST STOP NOW...but how good is "13 steps..." pretty amazing I am guessing?

Know what you mean mate, got extreme burn yesterday

I've got 13 steps as well mate but can never seem to finish it lol

daleshrimpton wrote:your bargain price isnt the full set by the way. the original course, was a collection of smaller books, that used to be sent one leason at a time.

I thought that the book on offer is a reprint of the original lessons, which are public domain. That content is currently sold in one massive book.

The eight-book series (which I do believe is essential) was re-edited, re-ordered and contains some different content. Obviously book 7 and 8 are newer additions.

daleshrimpton wrote:if you have tarbell, you dont need any other books, because its all in there. Material from almost every major magical thinker of the last 150 years.

Are they essential?

no... not if you want to spend far more time buying dvds, and hundreds of other books.. Are they important? Oh yes. Because they contain more than tricks.

your bargain price isnt the full set by the way. the original course, was a collection of smaller books, that used to be sent one leason at a time.

Yeah I guessed this might be the case given that the original 1-8 volumes would be around the £150 mark

I assumed they have taken some stuff from each individual volume and put it into the book?

If I could suggest something, and you're free to ignore this, I would suggest you worked your way properly through the books you have first before you buy tons of other stuff. If you just keep buying things you'll won't improve because you haven't practised one thing properly. Or, worse still, you'll have learnt very briefly so many sleights and tricks that you don't know what to use, and it is unlikely that any will have been practised to the point at which you can perform them. I know some people on this forum will say you need to read and learn from as many things as you can. I'm not saying that's wrong or that it's bad advice, but I think you should stick at one thing and then move onto something else. It's easier to notice yourself improve that way. If I remember you from your earlier posts, I think you were doing really well with an ID and you were going to start The Royal Road to Card Magic. I think that's what you should do. You can always buy more material after you've given the book a try.

Are they worth getting? In my opinion yes, because as Dale said, it is all there. Sometimes in disguise but it is all there.

Is it necessary? No book or DVD is necessary.

cc100 wrote:If I could suggest something, and you're free to ignore this, I would suggest you worked your way properly through the books you have first before you buy tons of other stuff. If you just keep buying things you'll won't improve because you haven't practised one thing properly. Or, worse still, you'll have learnt very briefly so many sleights and tricks that you don't know what to use, and it is unlikely that any will have been practised to the point at which you can perform them. I know some people on this forum will say you need to read and learn from as many things as you can. I'm not saying that's wrong or that it's bad advice, but I think you should stick at one thing and then move onto something else. It's easier to notice yourself improve that way. If I remember you from your earlier posts, I think you were doing really well with an ID and you were going to start The Royal Road to Card Magic. I think that's what you should do. You can always buy more material after you've given the book a try.

Thanks very much for some solid advice, and I know this is the right thing to do, I literally can't help myself...but yes, more time spent on practice is what I need big time

I have the 8 volume edition and agree with Dale and Bmat that these are indeed excellent books full of great material plus some solid advice on performing. The set is expensive but you can buy volumes singularly so maybe get the first two to begin with.
The principles contained in the book can easily be adapted to your own presentation. The books cover not just cards and coins, but a HUGE array of magic!