Joshua Jay's Amazing Book of Cards

I remember reading a sample of this book online to see if it truly was an "amazing" book of cards. I pulled out a deck of cards, started reading, and within minutes made up my mind to buy the book. Author and magician Joshua Jay has packed this book with some top-notch material that goes well beyond a collection of intriguing card tricks.In addition to a number of card tricks (something we all surely expect), the book includes instructions for card shuffles, stunts, and hustles. So far, I've actually enjoyed learning the shuffles more than the tricks themselves. I'm not learning just how to perform card tricks--I'm learning how to handle cards with precision and grace.I've also enjoyed the book's full-color images and companion DVD. Besides the book's gorgeous layout, the DVD brings the tricks to life--and facilitates learning--by showing not only how to execute the tricks but also how to perform the tricks. In case you haven't heard, there's a big difference between being able to do a trick and perform a trick. Performance is half the trick, if not more.Notably, Joshua Jay's "Amazing Book of Cards" is an introductory book. While the book does contain some tricks or techniques that might be considered advanced, this book only scratches the surface of what's possible. If you're serious about card magic, you'll soon want to pick up some more books to expand your knowledge.Overall, I'm highly pleased with this book and look forward to many happy hours perfecting the perfect Faro shuffle, which is the most precise shuffle in the world. There's even a one-handed Faro shuffle variation that apparently fewer than 100 people worldwide can perform.Maybe someday I can be one of them.

I bought this as a gift for my 16 year old nephew. I am confident that he will enjoy it. In looking it over I believe he will be able to add to his stable of magic tricks. It is a great looking book and is as described. It was sent in a very timely manner and was packaged appropriately.

We got this book for my nephew and he is enjoying it to no end. At first he didn't pay the book much attention, even if he was the one who had us order it, you know how kids are! But then he realized how easy the tricks were to learn and how the DVD is so helpful, and he started learning a trick or two every day! Now he knows tons and they are all amazing and I can't figure out for the life of me, how he does them.Magic is a great hobby for kids and it helps them develop and raise their self-esteem and social skills more than other activities do, like sitting in front of a TV playing video games all day. (I love video games, but they do tend to cut off the person playing them from the other surrounding members of the family, specially with lil kids, who become so entranced by them).So I'd suggest to all parents, to get this and other magic trick books (if your kid is interested of course, don't just push it on them!) because you'll all have fun when they start getting better and better, pulling tricks like it was nothing.

Leads you to believe that you are getting the cd with the book. Not the case. There are no instructions on how to access the videos.

Joshua Jay's book of cards was a fun purchase. There are quite a few seemingly simplistic tricks to do and he does well explaining them in the book. I found the dvd to be invaluable to my success for learning the few I have. Personally, what I liked best out of this book/dvd were not the tricks, but the card handling techniques. The root of all these tricks is truly knowing how to handle the cards and Josh puts you on the right track for this.This book is mainly for people who are just starting out with card tricks or looking to improve on thier shuffles and presentation at home poke games. It fit my need perfectly and I will be buying more of his books in the future.

My son is a magician. He is 17 and got into magic tricks/card tricks because of this book. He is REALLY good at these card tricks! He blows my mind! It was the perfect gift for him and he uses it everyday! He has so many cards now and they are all over the house, but I am glad he loves this and found something that he truly loves!

The product information is incorrect as others on here state. Product photo of cover shows label saying DVD included. There is instead reference to view video online. This is a gift and I am disappointed. ***Update 6/22/2022 - This was a gift and no DVD okay as there are video links instead. But the card trick my 10 year old grandson studied and was excited to do...did not work! I then read the trick multiple times (no video for this card trick which was stated as easy). Then I tried this trick and found it could not work ever. Angry this disappointed my grandson and turned him off to his gift.

Easy to follow instructions and fun tricks. 14 year old is loving it!

Joshua Jay is a great performer, having grown up with card magic which plays a major role in his life. Study his DNA and you will probably find hearts and spades... One can safely rely on a book by this author to be knowledgeable and conveyed with enthusiasm. That said, I have a quibble. The book's cover style hints that it might favour a younger readership, but it would have been helpful if the product description had said it was a children's book. The simplicity and the somewhat gushy writing style will act as a great magic primer for ages 7 to maybe 12 years old, after which teenagers and older will need stronger meat. In summary; a good book, offering a mix of quite basic magic and card manipulation skills, (albeit with one or two card routines that will need practise), but really only suitable for pre-teens.

Book plus video, brilliant

My son lives card tricks and gets most of them from YouTube but enjoys reading about them as well. Not as clear as a video guide but a useful addition to a budding magicians toolbox

If you have studied RR and are familiar and comfortable with the different shuffles and sleights, then you are probably not going to learn as much from this book. For the more advanced, see it as a celebration of cards - there are a lot of informative facts and stories that you will never have heard from and some pretty good tricks too. For such a good price, it is still worth a read as you will surely pick up a thing or two.For the beginner, this is a good place to start in card magic

Bought for a child interested in card tricks and it was ideal. He loved it.