As this massive inventory can be a bit overwhelming, here’s a helpful list of the top 10 best-selling card magic books sold by Vanishing Inc. this year (presented in no particular order).
Principia
Written by Singapore-based Magician and Instagram superstar Harapan Ong, Principia is Vanishing Inc.’s best-selling magic book of all time. Jam-packed with 60 radically innovative, fun and practical card tricks, Principia offers something for everyone from easy card tricks for beginner magicians to card magic with gimmicked playing cards for more advanced card handlers.
Often referred to as one of the top books for learning card magic, this great book features more than 500 pages of card tricks and sleight of hand from one of the best magicians of all time Ed Marlo. Out of print for a long time, this book sold quickly once it was finally re-printed this year.
The famous Chicago Magic Lounge’s resident magician Ryan Plunkett took the magic community by storm with his book Distilled. This gorgeous book is bursting with practical and professional material that has been carefully refined (or distilled) like a fine whiskey over countless performances in front of live audiences. Featuring a fascinating mix of entertaining plots like his vanishing deck of cards effect known as the “Gravity Deck” or his versions of classic card tricks like Dai Vernon’s “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, Distilled is a book that is sure to intrigue any card magician.
Following the massive success of his debut release Confident Deceptions, Jason Ladanye proved once again why he is one of the most respected card mechanics and gambling demonstrators in the industry with his latest book Game Changer. Beyond highlighting his technical prowess at the card table, such as his acclaimed work on the Pinky Count, this book offers 18 powerful, audience-tested card magic tricks that showcase Jason’s incredible creativity. While Game Changer is definitely best suited for intermediate to advanced card magicians, all of the sleights and tricks are taught with explicit detail and high-quality photos to ensure they can be easily understood by every magician.
A student of the father of Spanish card magic Arturo de Ascanio and one of Europe’s most accomplished magicians, Carlos Vaquera is best known for his remarkably elegant performance style and seemingly effortless ability to create card magic miracles. His book The Illusioneer offers a rare look into the mind of a master magician and was a massive success in its original French language. So much so, Vanishing Inc. worked directly with Carlos to bring this critically-acclaimed book to an English-speaking audience.
In addition to the more than 30 direct and powerful card tricks included in this amazing magic book, The Illusioneer features a collection of insightful essays about the art of performing magic that any magician will benefit from reading.
The Ambitious Card Trick is a famous magic trick that should be in the arsenal of every intermediate to advanced magician. Written by magic’s most prominent author, Stephen Minch, and one of the best magicians to ever live, Daryl (creator of the classic Hot Shot Cut), Ambitious Card Omnibus is considered by many professional magicians to be one of best resources for this versatile effect and offers the foundational knowledge needed to create your own unique ambitious card routine. It is highly recommended for everyone from beginner magicians to professional magicians.
Originally written in 1987, this updated version features a detailed description of Daryl’s “Ultimate Ambition”—the amazing ending to his ambitious card routine where a signed card rises from the middle to the top of the deck despite the cards being wrapped in rope to prevent any tricky sleight of hand. This is the first time ever that this mind-blowing card trick, which helped Daryl win a gold medal at the 1982 FISM Grand Prix (which is like the olympics of magic), has been described in detail in print.
Scott Robinson is known for developing incredible close-up magic tricks that feature a one-of-a-kind blend of being visual and deceptive while also being remarkably entertaining. Written in conjunction with Andi Gladwin and John Campbell, Pure Imagination features many of the most beloved tricks from Scott’s professional repertoire such as his impromptu Invisible Deck routine that doesn’t require a trick deck of cards or his mind-boggling Willy Wonka card trick.
As it was seemingly filled with a lifetime of material, most magicians thought David Regal would never be able to top his sensational magic book Approaching Magic. Well, a decade later, he proved everyone wrong with the release of Interpreting Magic, an exceptional magic book featuring more than 60 professional card magic, close-up magic, parlor magic and stage magic routines and a variety of compelling interviews with some of the most famous magicians and mentalists in the world from Teller to Derren Brown. There’s even a special introduction from Michael Carbonaro of The Carbonaro Effect.
While Interpreting Magic offers a wealth of new material, its greatest value definitely comes from its ability to inspire every performer to be more creative and strive to become a better magician.
Written by Andi Gladwin, Blomberg Laboratories is a gorgeous hardback book that reveals some of the most highly-guarded card magic secrets of Tomas Blomberg, a genius underground magician known for his revolutionary magic creations. Combining mathematics, sleight of hand, gaffs and other subtleties, Blomberg has developed some of the most deceptive card tricks we’ve ever seen and has fooled some of the most knowledgeable magicians in the world. After selling out completely during its first run, Blomberg Laboratories was finally re-printed this year and was once again an immediate bestseller.
Simon Aronson’s Bound to Please and Juan Tamariz’s Mnemonica are some of the best books for intermediate to advanced magicians to read. Despite the fact that they showcase the seemingly limitless power of using a memorized deck, many magicians tend to shy away from using a stacked deck of cards because they have trouble with the initial memorization. That’s where The Memory Arts comes in.
This super popular book features a powerful memory system that can not only help magicians memorize a deck of cards in less than an hour but can also improve your overall memory. There are even special editions dedicated exclusively to the Aronson Stack and Tamariz Stack.
Want to learn more card tricks?
We have put together a list of the best-selling books on card tricks and our best-selling card tricks on Vanishing Inc. this year.