Magic Books v. Magic DVDs

I was having a conversation with another magician the other day on this subject, and thought I’d summarise my continuing reasons for preferring magic books over DVDs.

1. You don’t have to keep pausing them!  That is, you can leave a decent hard backed book open on the page you want and study the details to your heart’s content with the props in your hands.
2. The pictures (in my experience) tend to be drawn from the performer’s perspective – whereas in most of the DVDs I’ve seen you have to work it out from the spectator’s view – very confusing.
3. Often, a well-written explanation is easier to understand than a moving image.  This sounds paradoxixal, but in fact you can read and re-read an instruction on a page with the props in hand, whilst on a DVD, if you are pausing or re-running a segment, it is much harder (though it must be said that the practise sessions on some L&L DVDs work quite well for this).
4. You can read a book anywhere.  This is particularly good (he writes, as Christmas approaches) when you are given a book for Christmas, and you can start reading it whilst sitting with your family!  Slightly less anti-social than watching a DVD!
5. I’m just a bit biased, because I love books!

And here’s a recommendation for a great book I’ve just read recently:

Dear Mr Fantasy by the excellent John Bannon.  $50.  (Sorry – I can only find it in the US at the moment).