By The Student.


This was certainly "provoked" by someone in the forum.

Why do magic books suck?

1. They are wordy and boring.
2. I don't like to read.
3. My english is not good so I don't understand what they are saying (duh. then brush up your English!)
4. I'm afraid I won't do it correctly with the description provided.
5. It's going to take time you know, watching DVDs is faster.
6. I can't learn from books.


And the list goes on. Blahblahblahblahblah....


Now it is not a major issue in our mystical society that the younglings or beginners don't read because there are still those who do. But I hate to see if this so happens that, people are influencing the newcomers to not learn from books but DVDs. Any suggestions that you make for learning magic should be books FIRST. This do justice to the art and its roots: books/texts.







Noble Guardian.

I am in love with magic books because I am in love with magic.
Books are the roots of magic and they seem to have this aura that a lot of knowledge are in them.

It is the books I can bring around and read and learn that I can hold and feel that: "Hey! I have the REAL SECRETS of MAGIC and I am a REAL STUDENT of MAGIC. I have to protect this important text of my beloved art. Who knows 50 years from now, I am one of the few left with these Bibles of Magic. I have read them! I am a successor of these secrets! I am a guardian!"

Try bringing a DVD around, you will not have such noble feelings for it. What more, you need a computer or a DVD player to even learn from it. Yucks!







Learning Process

Yes. Learning from books is HARD. I don't claim to have read all the words in my books. I don't claim to have read them many times yet and have truely studied them yet.
Part of my fun in learning magic now is realising a certain trick I have read about and going back to read it again and study it again figuring out the moves and etc.
Realising and Oh-ings my mistakes and so much that I have missed when I first read it.

Then, I truely felt that I learnt, I have achieved something that I am a real student.
There is such so much to this learning from books that you can only discover by yourself.
I wish I was not such a lazy person and I wish I had no academic responsibilities so I can commit myself to reading the books and learn.







What's wrong with DVDs?

There is nothing wrong with them except making lazy people, lazier and allows our art to be in the piracy.
Of course it has kept rare footages and leave us with the amazing works of the late legends.
But I wish I had witness and met these legends in person and learn from the books they have orginally.
(Currently, I have the Martin A. Nash and Andrew Wimhurst craze for their original text)
I would rather have my DVDs in books. Really, every single one of them.
I had just watched the DVDs and learn the tricks and not able to study much of them because I was so spoonfed.

Still, don't take me wrong that I am against DVDs. There are a few jems in DVDs but much more in the books. Choose the correct DVD but you can be sure that you have chose the right book most of the time.




Try.

You don't to start off learning from books, well I don't.
But I just hope that I have gotten you to keep the thought "I will learn from books in the future" in mind. I had considered myself lucky to be able to discover the wonderful adventures of learning from books. If not, I would now be ripping off easy learning from the DVDs and more DVDs and the single tricks.

Try to learn from books now.
Try to learn from books in the future.
Try to learn from books forever.



Are you a Guardian of Magic?
I'm on my way.

Excellent post Hanxiang. You mind if I do a link to your blog from my website? ;P

Shade

Sure no problem (:

I would beg to defer. While books are better when price:number-of-effects ratio is considered, or for collectables, DVDs are much better when it comes to learning, there is nothing better than watching a DVD except being personally taught by another magician or by performing. It is for this reason that I spent hours watching magic presentations by different magicians online for effects I am already familiar with.

With DVDs, pace, intonation, pauses of patter, etc can be observed -- something books cannot do. Angles wise, watching an experienced magician handle a crowd in the context of his magic effect is much better than learning it from scratch from a book. A magician's body language, delivery of humour, subtleties of patter, movement on the stage, stage works and other little subtleties are hard to replicate in writing (or may not even be noticed by the author himself since presentation is very much a natural reflection of his personality). Yet these qualities are easy to observe on DVD. Often, it is these little things that help to distinguish a good entertainer from a poor one, and this is what sells an effect. From learning these subtleties, a magician can improvise upon the routine to suit his style much better at a much quicker pace compared to just reading it. It's easier and wiser to start learning an effect by standing on the shoulder of giants who have gone before you and who have been performing for years by watching them perform visually rather than having to start from scratch by trying to decipher the little subtleties the author is trying to explained in writing. (If you have purchased stuff from Eduardo Kozuch, you will know how impossible it is to even follow what the author is saying) There are a number of effects that I have learnt from books, but when DVDs were released for the same effects (e.g. Luke Jermay's 7 Deceptions vs. Skullduggery, John Archer's Collard vs. his DVD presentation of the same effect), I still bought the DVD to observe. Another good example would be learning metal bending via a book vs. watching Strebler/Osterlind/Banachek's presentation on DVD. In every single case, I've picked up invaluable lessons in presentation and in "souping" up the effect even though I have already known how the effect was done right from the beginning. This is precisely the reason why magicians pay to attend magic lectures rather then just pay for a book. In magic lectures, you are not mentored in a one-on-one situation: it is usually a one-way instruction for most part -- not unlike watching a DVD without a replay function. Yet most people will agree that you learn so much more at a magic lecture compared to reading a book.

Good educators always involve engaging as many of the following categories as possible:

1. Visual
2. Print
3. Aural (audio)
4. Interactive
5. Haptic (learn by touch)
6. Olfactory (Smell)
7. Kinesthetic (movement)

Although DVDs do not involve all 7 categories, they certain do far better than books, which only engage "Print". Learning speed and receptivity to information from books and is therefore much slower compare to DVDs. For the same reason, in school, people pay to be taught via a lecture rather than just thrown books to read. Even long distance education these days are moving towards watching videos of lectures rather than just reading books alone. What a book does, a DVD can follow (even if it is just a blank screen with projected words and audio (print and Aural), it still beats a book). What a DVD does however, a book might not be able to follow.

Well...i do find it quite hard to learn sleight of hands from books, some books are just too wordy.
Things like sleight of hand would be better if was taught by someone, even watching video you would not get it...

However, magic books do certainly help you in ways, there are some tips or advices, that people usually don't give..., and i do agree if you learn from videos and people you tend to imitate those people, ending out not having your own style.

But i still feel that dvds and people tutoring smoetimes work best. And there was also one reason why i usually don't pick up book...
The tricks in the books i read are not really good and may even be repetive, for example, card tricks from solomon, lu chen's men's must learn magic and the encyclopedia of magic tricks....the list could go on...but alot of tricks are just not so good tricks being "dumped" by magician...i pretty much have trauma over books.


Anyway i go try my luck again finding magic books.....(after hearing so much recommendation)

Joel has put up a number of very good points too. :)

Ultimately, I believe that the medium of instruction depends very much on the LEARNER. A good instructional or educator helps, but seriously - the learner needs to know exactly what works for him/her. And ALL material needs to be adapted to suit oneself (again that self-same learner must know what suits him/her!)

No point trying to teach a person to read a book if he / she just can't read in the first place. Personally, I hope NOBODY reads any more. But of course, these are for obviously selfish reasons and that's just me.

Shade

Well, here's a few things about why one should try to read books:

Firstly, the benefit of reading text is that all of us may think and reflect upon it differently.

Consider this, very little work is done if you're watching an effect on a dvd. What you see is what you get. But let's say if you read an effect in a book and try to visualise it, there's a lot more going in the head than just watching a dvd. The thought process will actually be very helpful to generating creativity. Many people can read the same write-up and yet have different ideas of how it is presented or performed.

Secondly, many of the best gems in magic are hidden in books. Enough said.

Thirdly, a derivative of the second point, because many things are hidden in books, magicians who read books will tend to know more about the subject than others. This is quite clear, one book has so much more knowledge to offer than a dvd.

There are many other points that make learning from books an important aspect of learning magic but I think it's up to oneself to find out.

That being said, I think learning through DVDs is very helpful in the beginning for a person to know if what he/she is learning is being done correctly. Eventually, one will want to have a balance of learning from both books and dvds - the best of both worlds. Often though, I find that dvds are useful to supplement books.

Surely you do not expect that the magician will publish his professional and 'rice bowl' effects or routines? The 'not so good tricks' also once had their glorious days and were once the profession workhorse routines of some magicians.

However magic will evolve. New technology will also mean new effects will be invented and older effects may be updated with a new handling. The great effects today may one day be the not-so-good-tricks in the future.

In my personal opinion, to the layman an effect is an effect. Great or not-so-good is entirely up to the performer. A great performer can make an ordinary effect look impossible, vice versa a great effect can be made to look ordinary by a lousy performer. It is whether are you able to build a powerful presentation around the effect.

Just a general observation that may not be true in some cases, but it does seem that most of the stronger effects being marketed these days are usually marketed as DVDs rather than in a book. My guess is that this is due to the marketability of DVDs, hence more profit/sales for the magician selling it. Even gimmicks these days are usually sold together with a DVD as instructional means. Again, this is my personal opinion, and you are free to defer.

True, but if you realize, the basis of these 'new' effects often come from books.

Hi!

Books, DVDs, they are just different sources to learn from. I actually prefer to have a book as a reference and see dvds.

For example: If i am interested in Card magic, the royal road to card magic will help as a guide and card magic videos. Unfortunately for me, most of my magic sources comes from Jay Sankey. Considering to get Liu Qians magic books. Learn magic and chinese!

Most of the magic books i have contains pictures.

But the problem with me and DVDs is some sleights involve. I do not know some of the sleights talked about and most probably do it wrongly.

Books are different. Print+Visual is a perfect combination.

DVDs are cool. Seeing the performer doing the effect rather then guessing is good too.

Books:8/10

DVDs:7 and a half/10

Please do argue with any points you feel irrelevant.

(No! I feel like an adult!)

Try to explore other sources of your magic besides getting all from Sankey. Not that I have anything against him but I feel that he over markets.

Lu Chen's book don't contain serious magic, just some tricks for laypeople to perform when they read, although you may find some of them interesting to use for performing impromptu. I did.

Many DVDs out there assume you have a certain level of knowledge as to the techniques and such. Do your research carefully or else you buy something you can't do and you abandon it, wasting money and time.

what do you think of royal road to card magic? is it easy to read or learn? or is it worth it to buy

That's because 20 years ago, you don't have DVDs.

One of the classics in Card Magic. Get it.

It's a classic that is usually recommended for the sake of recommending it. A lot of sleights involve the overhand shuffle which is rarely used locally. There are quite a number of tricks at the back of the book which will be able to give you some ideas, mainly effect-wise, but some have rather ingenious methods. I do have it, and I also suggest you get it for the purposes of reference. It doesn't cost too much anyway.

Okay, this debate has come up yet again on SMC. Just to give some of my opinion on the whole issue of DVDs vs books.

I always recommend books because:
-they're cheaper and with more effects (small point)
-timeless
-soulful (you will love them more than plastic pieces)
-you get space to present the effect in your own way without being reminded of how it was presented by the originator

However, I do have some DVDs because, sadly, (and for me the main reason) some of the material are not available in print. DVDs do also have the obvious advantage of giving you a visual on what is happening, so having some DVDs for certain effects might possibly be good.

I think it is sad though that a side effect of DVD being more visual is that they make magic more accessible, less exclusive, and, in a way, cheapens it. You can say this view of magic is selfish and impractical, but I am sure we all know, that somehow, all the media coverage, magic shops and DVDs are (in the process of popularising magic to the masses) harming magic more than they glorify it.

If this is your first time picking up a magic book, then the answer to whether learning or reading it is easy is NO. You are going to struggle to understand certain instructions for quite a while before becoming comfortable with what they mean. You will need to be diligent and patient to sit down and understand the descriptions of effects, moves, etc. It is possible to spend several minutes just trying to understand a paragraph or two.

If you're going to get the book, be prepared to spend at least 3 months on it and also many painstaking hours.

The truth is, learning is not easy.

With that said though, Royal Road is pretty well written. I've had far worse experiences with a few other books. Sometimes, I can't even make head or tail of what a description is about even after spending several minutes. These however tend to occur in the older books where the writing style is "old" and less modern.

Ok. Will do my research next time.

Actually, my first source of magic came from a book called 'Encyclopedia to magic' by Nicholas Einhorn.

And it was pretty easy to follow.

But now i am baffled at where to get my magic resources.

Anyways, Royal road to card magic is real good.

Hey Blue Mode, most of us get our magic online. For myself, I'm usually buying from online shops that are in the US (eg. Madhatter, Penguin Magic, Denny Magic). Though I have to pay for shipping, it usually still ends up being much cheaper than buying locally. Unfortunately, this won't work for you because you don't own a debit/credit card.

So you probably have to get the support of your parents for them to buy magic for you. Look online for books/dvds you might want to get and ask your parents for permission to get it for you. Since it's your PSLE year, why don't you try talking to your parents for a present if you do well in your tests and exams? You work hard for your grades and you get your magic. =)

Thanks. Will do. But what DVD/Book should i get? Something that will help me get known in my sec school.

I notice you have been asking that in your past posts and threads.
No offence, but have you not gotten enough advice already?