Books About Magic

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I am reading Jim Steinmeyer's Hiding The Elephant and it's pretty good, in a not taking up too much thought sort of way. Most of the stuff about magician's craft and attempts to attach grander meaning to his narrative fail. But now I properly know what Pepper's Ghost is, which is what I was hoping for.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 12 January 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

William Goldman's "Magic" is total fun, as is everything else he's written.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 13 January 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

some worryingly colonialist anecdotes recounted in this.

people i now know a bit more about:
i) Harry Houdini
ii) Georges Méliès

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 13 January 2007 19:07 (eighteen years ago)

Houdini was a recurring character in Doctorow's "Ragtime."

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 13 January 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

it's an ILLUSION

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 13 January 2007 20:10 (eighteen years ago)

Try Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil. It's one of the few books I wished were longer.

― SRH (Skrik), Saturday, 13 January 2007 22:15 (eighteen years ago)

josh i bet you were a fun kid

― tom west (thomp), Sunday, 14 January 2007 03:45 (eighteen years ago)

illUSION tom, illUSION

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 14 January 2007 04:47 (eighteen years ago)

stone junction, by jim dodge, just only reread.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 06:17 (eighteen years ago)

There's fun escapology in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

I second Beth's William Goldman recommendation. His books are fun.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 09:36 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~aahobor/Lucy-Day/Images/Covers-50/Half-Magic-50th.jpg

― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 18 January 2007 20:13 (eighteen years ago)

Hee! I have an old paperback edition but that one is gorgeous.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:03 (eighteen years ago)

Mary, are you going to ALA? (I can't remember who the librarians are around here.) You could maybe find the editor who put out that edition, if you wanted to thank him. Personally I'd be more tempted to drop something really heavy on his feet, but that's just me.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:28 (eighteen years ago)

No ALA for me; I'm not a full-fledged librarian *yet*.

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 20 January 2007 04:11 (eighteen years ago)

Never mind, Molly offered to do the damage. :D

― Laurel (Laurel), Saturday, 20 January 2007 04:43 (eighteen years ago)

wait - princess bride william goldman? that william goldman?

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 20 January 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

seven months pass...

okay i bought the william goldman book and - really?

― thomp, Friday, 7 September 2007 22:59 (eighteen years ago)

also: i have now forgotten what pepper's ghost was. again.

― thomp, Friday, 7 September 2007 23:00 (eighteen years ago)

Robertson Davies' World of Wonders (one of the novels of the Deptford trilogy - but read them all, not just this one), about a boy who is kidnapped by a carnival trickster and grows up to be the famous magician Magnus Eisengrim.

― Jaq, Friday, 7 September 2007 23:15 (eighteen years ago)

those always make me think of these:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e4/CrystalPrisonBook.JPG/180px-CrystalPrisonBook.JPG

― thomp, Friday, 7 September 2007 23:22 (eighteen years ago)

Ha! I'll have to read those!

― Jaq, Friday, 7 September 2007 23:30 (eighteen years ago)

i skim-read to the end of magic. for those not aware, it's about a ventriloquist-magician who believes his dummy is telling him to kill people. it is, at least, better than it sounds.

― thomp, Saturday, 8 September 2007 22:48 (eighteen years ago)

Oh I remember that one! I read it when it came out (I was in high school). Another novel about magic (or at least, magicians) is Paul Theroux's Milroy the Magician.

― Jaq, Sunday, 9 September 2007 02:01 (eighteen years ago)

<i>The Prestige</i> by Christopher Priest?

― woofwoofwoof, Sunday, 9 September 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

i'm reading that, actually. i prefered the movie.

― thomp, Monday, 10 September 2007 06:10 (eighteen years ago)

it's interesting, actually, the class bit is kind of the motivator of the novel: whereas that's completely stripped away almost in the movie, leaving it kind of a pure formal exercise in well uh 'doubling'

― thomp, Monday, 10 September 2007 10:17 (eighteen years ago)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel

― Skrik, Monday, 10 September 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

i meant, like, real fake magic. (as opposed to fake real magic, or real magic, or fake fake magic; which latter most of the books mentioned so far deal in.)

― thomp, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 00:15 (eighteen years ago)

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