How to work through a book?

[Philipp S.(4)]

Hey there,

it is advised to learn magic from books. But nobody tells us how to work through a book. Should I learn everything in it or just the things I like. Should I read through it, mark passages and then come back to it later?
What is your way or working through books and which advice on that would you give beginners?

Cheers
Philipp

 

[Craig Browning]

You start at the beginning and work your way to the back . . . FIRST!

That is to say, read through the book as you would any book. Do Not try learning any of the effects just yet, just read and learn at the mind's level (intellectually). Then go back and start studying the material. Some books will rate routines from simplest to most difficult so pace yourself and start with the basics before you move on to the more challenging material. This also means that you should stick with material that is appropriate to your level of experience; you must learn to walk before you can run. . . far too many people these days want to run before they're even crawling, take your time and absorb the material slowly, one effect or move at a time.

A few days ago I purchased a book on a routine I've wanted to learn for some time, it's blown my mind. BUT, I am forced to start with the basics which, in this particular case, includes how to properly sit, certain palming methods and how to work with a wand. . . all of this before you start learning the moves around the routine. . . a routine that requires at least six months just to learn the basic sequence and years before you're proficient in things in that it is entirely slight of hand and requires some very "forward thinking" on the part of the mage; nothing about it is casual.

If you are not used to working with books I'd encourage you to pick up the Mark Wilson Course or Bill Tarr's NOW YOU SEE IT/NOW YOU DON'T books so you can start with the basics of magic but likewise, the basics of learning how to learn from books. These are relatively easy books to comprehend and consume knowledge from and they do rate the magic from ease to challenging. The nice thing is there will be a bonus for you when learning from these two particular sources; you'll be prepared with enough of the basics to do magic anywhere, at any time using most anything.

 

[Philipp S.(4)]

So you conclude with advising to learn everything?

 

[Randy]

Read through it first and then go over again, but this time with a note book in hand and take note of the routines/moves you want to learn. After the 2nd time of reading it. Read it again out loud and then read the notes you took from the book.

I wouldn't advise trying to learn everything. You'll just end up burning yourself out. You need to learn to pace yourself. One of the best things about having a note book is that it forces you to put the books descriptions into your own words and also makes you pay attention if you missed anything.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Personally I read through the book cover to cover, then go back and review the things I liked and will likely use. Though these days I read more theory than tricks.

 

[krab]

I sit down with the book and a notebook and read through the effects first. I then write a small summery of each effect as I go through them Second read through I read the effects that seem to fit my current act. Afterwards I add the list of effects from the book into the spread sheet of the books I own so when I'm looking for an effect i can quickly find it. It also saves me from spending money one one trick DVD that are just rehashed effects from 50 years ago.

 

[ChrisWiens]

Hey there,

it is advised to learn magic from books. But nobody tells us how to work through a book.

That's because it's an individual thing and there is no universal, best way to do it. My preferred way of absorbing written information may be a little bit different from your way. Some books are already constructed in a way you can easily learn from. The author of CC for example made huge efforts to structure his course in a didactically useful manner, and even this may not be the best way for everyone.

I do it more or less excactly the way Craig described. I first read through the entire book to get an overview and to not get into detail too soon.
I don't rush anything. I need time to absorb information, to think about what I've read. Later on I normally use postits to make notes. I hate ruining my books by writing on the pages.

The process is more or less the same as my creative process (I do sculpting and composing as a hobby, and effect/trick design/practice is a similar process to me). I start with the whole, rough form/idea and then I add more and more layers of detail/iterations to form the final sculpt/composition/trick, always keeping (or let`s rather say I'm trying) the basics of the artform/craft in mind.
The mistake many beginners do in any craft and artform is that they often loose the final picture (I unfortunately do regulary!) by getting into details too soon.

Last but not least I want to stress an often overlooked factor, motivation.
Many (most?!?) people don`t read everything in specialized books. You must motivate yourself to really work through all these pages and that`s an effort most people (at least the ones I know) are not willing to take.