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The Royal Road to Card Magic | 
| Authors: Jean Hugard, Frederick Braue
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $6.79
You Save: $5.16 (43%)
Rating:  37 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 310
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0486408434
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.85
EAN: 9780486408439
ASIN: 0486408434
Publication Date: May 27, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The must-have classic January 7, 2008
Erik Arfeuille (Belgium)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The basic treatise on card magic. Though somewhat outdated, this is still the fundamental course on card sleights. Pretty good tricks in here too. Sound learning principles: learn sleight, learn tricks using the sleight, only then move on to next sleight. As this is inexpensive every magician ought to have this in his library, if only as a reference work.
 Excellent sleights, but sometimes unclear August 22, 2007
Neil J. Mehta
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is designed to teach the reader how to perform a wide variety of basic sleight-of-hand card tricks. The sleights themselves are classics; I think that knowing basic sleight of hand is fundamental for performing really impressive card magic, and this book contains all of the groundwork you will need. The book includes information on the overhand shuffle, the riffle shuffle, the glimpse, the palm, the double lift, the pass, and much more.
The explanations of the sleights are quite detailed. This allows the reader to pick up fine points and refine the techniques.
That said, I think this book has some important deficiencies. (1) Many of the moves are not illustrated at all. It's very difficult to learn some sleight of hand moves with just a verbal description. More pictures would be tremendously helpful. (2) While the book contains many great tricks, especially towards the end, it also includes a number of dull ones. I personally hate any card trick that involves spelling (i.e., you count cards out as you spell some word, and the last card counted out is the chosen one), and this book includes plenty of those. Still, if you select tricks carefully from the book, you will end up with some astonishing routines.
One warning, though: sleight-of-hand magic requires a LOT of practice. If you're interested in picking up a new magic trick in five minutes, this is not the book for you! If, however, you would like to learn really deceptive card tricks - tricks that the average spectator will really be stunned by - and you are willing to devote time to daily practice, then this book is a fine option.
Surprised to find this got only 4.5 stars March 30, 2007
Tom Ewall (Lawrence, KS United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a truly wonderful book. I can't think of a better one for Card magic. It explains the different sleights, and has excellent routines to use them. It does assume one has a basic understanding of Card magic, so I suppose someone starting out who has no background could find it frustrating. It's not the best book for a rank beginner, but for someone who has some knowledge of the basics, I think it's terrific.
Old but not outdated February 2, 2007
Luis Carlos Solano (San Jose, Costa Rica)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the best book to start in card magic. Small, easy to follow, full of information. After you read this book, you will be able to understand the description of most tricks to learn, and also, you will surprise yourself figuring out tricks just to look at someone performing it. If you want to be a professional magician (not my case at all) you'll have to read a lot more, but, this book will be always a good reference.
I recommend after finishing reading RRTCM, move to Expert Card Technique written by the same authors.
Card handling is not easy.... January 10, 2007
B. Barajas (California)
This book is great for learning different card handling and shuffling techniques, however it can be a little tuff to follow sometimes. If you dont already have a basic understanding of how to handle cards you might want to start with a video first. It's usually a bit easier to learn when you can actually see whats going on. A side from all that, this is a really good book.
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