Wonder, Tommy & Minch, Stephen: The Books of Wonder Vol.1 ©1996 Stephen Minch, Tommy Wonder Published by Hermetic Press, Inc., Seattle, WA Hardcover, 327 pages ISBN: 0-945296-16-9

Image courtesy e-Bay seller LeoCuellar

Comment (Jake Austin: The Books of Wonder are classic books of magic. They are books for intermediate to advanced magicians. The effects are spectacular but in general require a lot of work to master. The essays are a joy to read and are difficult to argue with. I highly recommend these books.

Contents: (updated Jan 2016)

ix Preface
xi Introduction: The Wonder Years (Max Maven)
1 Prologue: The Limitations of Theory
1 - Raw Diamonds
2 - Feeling Right
3 - Why Theory
4 - Developing Intuition
4 - Refining Theory
4 - No Rules

7 Chapter One: Attention-Getting Devices
9 Getting the Mis Out of Misdirection
9 - Outside-Inside
11 - Misdirection
13 - Something of Interest
14 - Continuous Direction
14 - Believing In Your Own Magic
15 - Lack of Confidence in the Power of Misdirection
17 - Broadening Attention
18 - No Control
18 - Waiting
20 - Keep It Subtle, Keep It Short
20 - Nothing Happened
21 - Concentrating Attention
23 - The Tension-Relaxation Wave
24 - Mental Direction
24 - Time and Place Dissociation
25 - Grasping At a Straw
26 - Acting
27 - Advanced Direction Techniques
27 - The Train
27 - Multiple Layers
28 - Connecting the Train With Multiple Layering
29 - Applying the Ideas
29 - The Chain of Shadows
31 - On Making Adjustments
33 - Postscript
35 Tough Customers
40 Ricochet

43 Chapter Two: Travel Tales of Mr. Pip
45 Magic Ranch: version of Don Alan's Card in the Egg
53 The Mind Movie: essay - imagining your effect
55 Fabricated: card through handkerchief
59 The Architect: essay - building your effect
64 Elizabeth III: based on Wally Boyce's Elizabeth 2nd, card in envelope matches selection
70 Failureffects: essay on magician-gone-wrong effects
77 Here and Not: based on Hofzinser's Everywhere and Nowhere plot
88 The Pavlov Effect: essay on improving your performance
90 Post-ultimate Rip-off: improvements to Paul Harris' Ultimate Rip-off torn & restored card
97 Counting Cards, Unnatural Rhythms and Other Problems
100 The Poltergeist Pack: the self-cutting, or Haunted Pack
105 Walk, Don't Run: essay - how to avoid being chased
107 Carpenter's Revenge: a nail penetrates a card and the card is un-harmed
112 Rubik's Card: blocks with pips in a box match the card selection
115 Concerning Eye Contact: essay
119 The Shrinking Card-case: two designs
123 Falling Pips: as an add on to the shrinking case, the pips of the cards fall to the bottom of each card
127 - Card Holdout
129 Ambi-tilt: depth illusion for card work
136 The Two-second Card Fold: variation of the Mercury fold
141 The Card in the Ringbox: update to Fred Kaps' routine
149 Squeeze: entire deck is squeezed to fit into small card case
156 All That Glitters: essay
157 The Pip-eating Spider: a ball of tissue paper eats card pips, which end up on the paper
161 The Origin of Originality: essay
164 The Wondereverse: secret reverse
167 Déjá ReVurse: one of two selections keeps turning face up, the 2nd selection is finally found
173 Breath Control: essay
176 Master or Servant?: essay

179 Chapter Three: The Tamed Card
181 The Creative Process: essay on development of The Tamed Card
183 The Tamed Card: a thorough treatise of Tommy's version of Wild Card
202 The Kickoff: essay on alternative ways to start an effect
204 Card Forcing: essay
206 Confidence: essay
209 Slow and Steady Wins the Race:
212 Fictitious Danger: psychological cover vs. physical cover
214 An Examination of Examinations: on the examination of props
217 High and Low: designing your show for your audience
222 The Family Three: the rules of 3
225 Reset: developing tricks that reset

229 Chapter Four: Presentations In Silver
231 Coins Across and Back with Interlude: a Boston Box (Okito Box variation) routine
243 Mud in Your Eye: an addition to coins across where a coin appears on the eye
248 When Tricks Become Transparent: when spectators find out 'how', and does it matter?
254 Sweet and Sour Simplicity: essay - simple is good, but not always best
257 Cigarette Through Quarter: a Handling
261 And Here I Have…: essay on presenting your props
263 Counterfeiter's Spellbound: a C/S routine

269 Chapter Five: Group Encounters
271 Dealers: and the business of magic quality
274 Date with an Inflatable Bunny: a sort-of torn & restored rabbit paper
276 Rabbit Rouser: the rising card, kid-show style
278 Practical Thinking: essay - too much practicality ruining an effect
281 The Tobacco Exchange: cards to cigarette case, and more
289 Emotional Involvement: emotions vs. technical skill
291 The Improved Hydrostatic Glass: an improved gimmick and how to make it
294 Acting is Not Making Faces
297 Auto-link: a clever gimmick to aid the Linking Finger Rings
300 The Paradox of Money and Success: essay
302 The Ring, the Watch and the Wallet: all removed and placed in envelope, they vanish to re-appear on magician
316 The Three Pillars: on communication

323 Epilogue: Ouroboros