Joshua Jay

This book was such a disappointment. It was highly touted and recommended to me by a friend who reads a lot of nonfiction. Unfortunately, the book failed to meet expectations. The book does start off strong and was both interesting and entertaining. But it shortly fell flat and was difficult to continue to read. The material is highly repetitive and simply not interesting.

There are over 50 chapters in the book. Each chapter is supposedly the answer to a question the author, a magician, has been asked in the past. Like I said, much of the material is repeated in numerous chapters. Each chapter is an essay on a different topic.

The book comes in at 310 pages, but in actuality, it is much shorter. Most chapters are only three to four pages long, and often end with just a few sentences or a paragraph at the top of the page, leaving a lot of white space in the book. Also, each chapter begins with a full page illustration with no text other than the name of the chapter. Subtract the white space and wasted title page for each chapter, and the book is really just over 200 pages long. Two chapters are especially short. One chapter is seven words long and another is only one word long. Yes, really. What a waste of paper.

I give the book two stars as some of the material was interesting, but if the author had not repeated so much information, and been more concise in his explanations, it would have been a much better book.… (mais)

This is the most comprehensive work on the flipper coin in print. Troy Hooser is most famous for his groundbreaking work with gaffed coins, specifically the flipper coin (and the use of a flipper coin in conjunction with a shell). He is clearly the authority on this gaff. While some of his experimentation is recorded in his book, DesTROYers, this set of notes gives the topic more depth than provided anywhere else and includes routines not published anywhere else. It details several routines as well as basic moves and handling of this unique gaff.… (mais)