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A review by hannahstohelit
How Magicians Think: Misdirection, Deception, and Why Magic Matters by Joshua Jay
4.5
I was stuck between 4.25 and 4.5 on this one, but I went higher because I think it does what it aims to do quite well and the fact that what it aims to do and what I wanted it to do aren't really the same thing isn't its fault. I did know quite a bit of what was in this book already, as a former magic-phase kid who now loves reading about the development of stage magic, but I still got a lot out of this book even if only being introduced to a bunch of different current magicians who I wasn't super familiar with.
Having already done some magic reading, I was surprised that in the "can magicians cheat at cards" section there wasn't anything about SW Erdnase and the use of cardsharping techniques in the development of closeup card magic- with that space instead being taken up by some random anecdotes- and in general I would have loved to see a bit more magic history in there, but what was there was a lot of fun, and while I knew quite a bit of it already I certainly had plenty to learn. I also thought that Jay did a great job of conveying something that I learned back in my magic-kid phase (and that made me drop it...), which is that many magic "tricks" aren't gimmicks but are actually insanely hard skills that require a lifetime to practice (as well as excellent flexibility, hand eye coordination, all that good stuff). There's a reason why so many professional magicians are nuts about what they do, because you have to be that nuts about magic to devote enough of your life to become good enough to be professional! I now want to dive back into a more long-form kind of history of magic book and have one or two on hold from the library now.
Having already done some magic reading, I was surprised that in the "can magicians cheat at cards" section there wasn't anything about SW Erdnase and the use of cardsharping techniques in the development of closeup card magic- with that space instead being taken up by some random anecdotes- and in general I would have loved to see a bit more magic history in there, but what was there was a lot of fun, and while I knew quite a bit of it already I certainly had plenty to learn. I also thought that Jay did a great job of conveying something that I learned back in my magic-kid phase (and that made me drop it...), which is that many magic "tricks" aren't gimmicks but are actually insanely hard skills that require a lifetime to practice (as well as excellent flexibility, hand eye coordination, all that good stuff). There's a reason why so many professional magicians are nuts about what they do, because you have to be that nuts about magic to devote enough of your life to become good enough to be professional! I now want to dive back into a more long-form kind of history of magic book and have one or two on hold from the library now.