A while back I posed a simple question: How do you save Reference Material?
The question was easy to ask, the answer has been anything but. Well, I guess that's not true. For me, it's fairly straightforward.
How I literally store reference material:
This site, The Babbit's Grimoire, is my storage. The library that you can see is a "sneak peek" into what data is actually stored; it's, at least for now, what I think is the most beneficial to show.
Every magic book I own, every magazine, video tutorial, trick -- they're all entered. Or, rather, a lot of it is still being entered in, but a lot is here already. I have a rather large database and part of it is setup similar to what you'd see on Conjuring Archive. Every trick is broken down into parts, easily searchable and referenceable. I have a few end goals in mind once more things are entered in, but the most important one is just having an easy way to grab reference material... especially when my physical library isn't at arm's reach.
But that's just me.
Feedback (from the previous post):
I've heard from several folks about how they store their go-to effects from books and videos. The overwhelming majority have said that they hand-copy the tricks they like into a notebook while others turn to to scanning and printing physical copies. Some never get rid of books, others get rid of anything they haven't opened in a while (define "a while"?).
One person said that if they forgot the trick, it wasn't worth remembering ... which at face value my immediate reaction was "that makes sense", but then thinking about it even slightly, well no. No it doesn't. I've forgotten way more than I remember, and it's gotten to the point that I can sometimes read a trick I read and learned years ago and have that "first time" reaction all over again. Sad? Maybe. But also kind of great.
Collectors gonna collect!
And that brings me back to what to do with the physical books and magazines that are just taking up space. Obviously, if you're a collector you're going to collect. I'm a collector, but I also know junk when I see it. In the last year, I've thrown out 4 books and sold 5. That may not sound like a lot, but these books had a combined page count of over 2500 ... and I went through all of them!
Okay, that's not true either. 4 of the 5 that I sold were duplicates (Bruce Cervon's Castle Notebooks, Volumes 2 - 5). I really didn't need 9 books in a 5 book series. But the others that I parted with were junk, in my opinion.
Now, books are one thing. Magazines, on the other hand... these feel like something that are easy to just toss. But what happens if the magazine goes out of print? Are the effects, let alone articles, that were printed there lost forever? (or until someone winds up printing every issue into a book)
Genii Magazine
The only physical magazine I have a subscription to is Genii. It comes monthly. Twelve times a year. And I have several years worth.
Sometimes I skip reading a month's issue, almost always due to lack of time. About two weeks ago, I decided to play catch-up and holy smokes, I had exactly 12 unread issues from throughout the last 3 years. It takes me 3 or 4 mornings, sitting with my coffee, to get through a single issue -- assuming I don't practice any of the magic tricks that it has in it, so I should be caught up in no time!
I haven't counted the exact number of Genii issues I have in my stack, but my quick estimate is around 50 or so. That's the number of read copies. Have I flipped back through any of them after I read through them the first time? Nope. Not once. Did I find things worth keeping when I read through them? Absolutely!
Here's the neat thing about Genii though, it comes with a digital subscription too! I'm not trying to sell you on it I promise, I'm just noting that this is really beneficial and relevant for the "saving reference material" aspect. I decided to start skimming back through every issue I have and jot down which effects I think I'd perform, and once finished I'll toss the issue. I've gone through 16 complete issues so far and only 2 of them had nothing worth saving! Most have at least 2 effects I'm interested in. I seriously can't believe I didn't already add these to my working, let alone practice, repertoire.
But yeah, thanks to the digital subscription I'm able to pull up any issue and go right to the page I want, from anywhere! The big thing about the effects in Genii that I really love is that, more often than not, they tip to other routines or sleights, and sometimes those are more valuable than the effect being described. This is worth noting because a decent number of things printed in the magazine appear elsewhere -- either in another book, or a download somewhere. These extra "tips" might not be in the original work and are worthwhile to know.
It's not the fastest, skimming through 80+ page magazines and reading effects, but I'll get through all of them soon and finally have space to move the overflow pile of books on my counter to =P.
In the meantime, I already finished reading this month's issue of Genii and have added it to the pile to toss!