The Complete Idiot's Guide to Magic Tricks by Tom Ogden (1998, Paperback)

I couldn't put this down and at first felt it was giving me too much info in that I am new to magic and only interested in entertaining my grand children so at first I felt all this info which was so interesting (how to be a working magician)would not really help me. Yet, I soon found having the comprehensive overview showed me how important it is to plan a series of illusions and how easy it is for a rank begginer to start feeling confident. I loved that it gave me the history on a lot of the things and magicians, which makes it alot more entertaining than books just on how to do illusions. Before I even finished it at a breakfast with my grand children in a local restaurant I suddenly remembered a trick from the book, picked up a knife and was seemingly levitating it, drawing astonished looks from not only the children but from people at nearby tables. Need I say I was having a blast and delighted at how easy it was to make use of something everyday to do someing amazing. Page 40-Static Cling. It is probably "too basic" for magicians with a bit of expierence but for the newbie I reccomended this, it is also a great read.