The Top 10 Magic Books Every Magician Should Read

Ok, We all know that there are way more than 10 magic books every magician SHOULD read.  But people like lists, so here are the top books you should read if you have not read anything before!

As mentioned, these are not the ONLY 10 magic books that every magician should read as knowledge is paramount. The more you read and study,  the more you will expand your knowledge and further  your goal of being a great magician.

The list doesn’t just include books on tricks and how they work, these are important, but there are also books on the theory of magic and the performance of magic which are equally as important. Within the list, we will identify the books as either trick related or theory related. Do not pass up on the theory books, when you have learned enough tricks, (and you will, you may already know too many!) you will realise it isn’t the trick that gets the reactions, it is the performance. You do not learn this in a book of tricks.

So here they are, 10 Magic Books Every Magician Should Read.

Magic The Complete Course – This is a great magic book to introduce you to magic. Even if you already know magic you will still learn something from this book. Magic the Complete Course assumes you have no previous knowledge of magic and it is what it says, a complete course. It not only teaches you tricks across multiple platforms, from stage to close up. But it also teaches you other details such as how to perform, at the end of the magic book it gives you examples of great routines you can put together from the tricks you have learned in the book.

Royal Road To Card Magic – This is widely known as the go to source for beginning to learn card magic. Nearly every card magician who has emerged over the past 50 years will have studied this book. It is a comprehensive book of some of the most important sleights you can do with a deck of cards.

Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic – What Royal Road is to for card magic, Bobo’s is for coin magic. Many magicians begin their quest by buying Royal Road to Card Magic and Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic, they kind of go hand in hand. Bobo’s is a great source of learning for all thye sleights/palms/appearances and vanishes you can do with a coin.

13 Steps To Mentalism – It seems most genres have their own stand out books, for mentalism it is 13 Steps to Mentalism by Tony Corinda. A great book that takes you through many of the key techniques and methods used by mentalists all over the world. If you have ever had your mind read by someone, the likelihood is that they have read this book!

Card College Series – So, this is a series, rather than a single book, so maybe I am bending the rules here a bit. The Card College Series is a much deeper look into all facets of card sleight of hand. If card magic is what you wish to learn and you have soaked up all the information in Royal Road to Card Magic then the Card College series will continue where Royal Road left off. With 5 volumes and other editions under the same branding such as Card College Light (more of a look at self working card magic) Roberto Giobbi has really created a great legacy top leave behind.

Art of Astonishment Series – Again, I am cheating, this is a series of 3 magic books. But they are GREAT books. Not only are they FULL of creative and fun magic but they are written in a very entertaining way, Paul Harris, the author writes the book as if you are speaking with him and you will find yourself laughing as you read it. The books are full of great material using cards, coins, sweets and more. It has such a eclectic collection of material it is definitely one of the 10 magic books every magician should read.

The Trick Brain – The Trick Brain is all about creating magic. We should all take the magic we learn and put our own spin on it, sometimes this will lead to naturally creating something fresh or entirely new (although entirely new is very rare!). The Trick Brain breaks down the creative process within magic and takes a detailed look at how you can go about creating your own routines and tricks. Dariel Fitzkee is a genius at breaking things down into manageable and direct piece of information that are easily processed. Giving you examples of effects and methods and then how to transfer those methods to anything you want.

Magic by Misdirection – Magic by Misdirection is another book by Dariel Fitzkee, whatever Dariel did for creativity in the Trick Brain, he does exactly that for misdirection in Magic by Misdirection. Dariel breaks down misdirection into its most basic form and teaches you why it works and how it works. By reading this book you will have a much better idea of how to truly deceive and misdirect someone. This isn’t all about making someone look at something whilst you do something else quickly out of their view. This is about how to completely and truly deceive them, only once you understand what you are trying to portray can you even begin to get to that all encompassing deception that the great magicians all understand so well.

Strong Magic – Strong Magic is a book on the theory of magic. It does not teach tricks, what it teaches is much more important though. It teaches you how to present your magic in the strongest fashion possible. What Darwin Ortiz’s aim was when writing this book was to pass on all the knowledge he has accumulated over 20 years of performing and studying what really moves an audience. Do you want spectators to be in awe and disbelief, do you want huge rounds of applause and gasps from your audience, if you do, then before you buy another trick, buy and study Strong Magic.

Maximum Entertainment – Maximum Entertainment by Ken Weber is another book on the theory of magic. This time it looks more deeply at presenting magic to larger groups and audiences from a stage. All of the information is very important and valuable though. If you read chapters such as the chapter on scripting, you can truly boost your performances from mediocre to powerful. If you are ever looking to perform magic on a stage Maximum Entertainment is the book to read. If you don’t plan to perform magic on stage Maximum Entertainment is still a very great source of valuable information.

So there you have it, 10 Magic Books Every Magician should read. These books have made a real difference to so many magicians. The truth is you should never stop reading or learning if you truly want to be great at what you do. So, go read these ten books and then email us at [email protected] and we will tell you about the next 10 books..