Half Price Books

I recently took a trip to Half Price Books, a used book store chain, where I found a copy of Harry Lorayne's Close Up Card Magic, a first edition none the less, for seven dollars. This comes after finding a complete set of Card College for under thirty dollars two years ago, as well as various other books (The Complete Course in Magic by Mark Wilson is always a popular find).



My point here, is that a lot of you are passing by hidden treasures in the form of used books. I read a lot, so every time I go into a Half Price Books, I check the magic section (it'll be over near the poker books), and every now and then, I find something outstanding.

And I think that books are an important medium that is falling by the wayside. When was the last time you saw Ellusionist or Theory 11 put out an actual book? Go ahead and check, the links are right there. What'd you find? That's right, all DVD's. Unfortunately, this is the way that the new generation is learning magic: from DVD's.

Now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, in fact, learning from DVD's is amazingly simple. You can stop and go back and watch an actual person perform the trick. The biggest problem I see with it is that by watching a person do a trick, you're now simply learning to perform it the way they perform it.


A book is a much harder thing to learn from, true. But while sitting there working at it, what you eventually find is that you now have your very own trick, something that is custom tailored to you. So next time you're looking for some new material, check your local bookstore first.