About
What is the Exploring Erdnase Book Club?
The Exploring Erdnase Book Club is a year-long book club on The Expert at the Card Table by the mysterious author S.W. Erdnase. The book club is written and run by me, Marty Jacobs, a passionate amateur magician and fan of everything related to Erdnase and The Expert at the Card Table.
Who Was S.W. Erdnase?
No one really knows. S.W. Erdnase is the pseudonym that the author of the book used. When you reverse the letters in the name, it spells E.S. Andrews, so many magic historians believe that this was the real name of the author of the book.
If you’d like to learn more about the book, I recommend you read my first blog post on it: Exploring Erdnase: The Bible of Card Magic.
When Does the Book Club Begin?
The book club began on Sunday, the 1st of January, 2023.
Can I Join Late?
Yes, absolutely! You can join at any point during 2023.
Do I Have to Subscribe via Substack to Join the Book Club?
No, but I’d prefer it if you did. However, I understand that some people are very protective about what gets delivered to their email inboxes. I get it. Too much email can be overwhelming. If you'd rather not receive updates via email, you can simply follow along by reading the weekly blog posts that I publish on my magic blog (Marty’s Bag of Tricks).
Do I Have to Own the Book to Participate in the Book Club?
No. I've prepared a new digital version of the book that you can view on the web (or download free of charge). This edition has new typesetting and enlarged illustrations to aid the learning process. In fact, I’ll be referring to the page number in this edition to avoid confusion.
If you want to download a PDF version of the book to your device, you can select File > Download > PDF document (.pdf). You can also download the file in other formats, including Microsoft Word (.docx). Finally, if you have a Google Account, you can select File > Make a copy to duplicate the entire document. Doing this is helpful if you want to add inline comments or make your own edits to the text.
How Often Do You Publish Updates?
We send out weekly emails. You’ll receive an update in your email inbox every Sunday at 11 am GMT, along with the odd update in between. But I promise not to spam your inbox with obscure information about S.W. Erdnase!
How Long Will the Book Club Run For?
The book club will run for the whole of 2022. This will give us enough time to work slowly through the contents of the book. However, if it proves popular, I might continue the newsletter after the book club has finished or repeat the book club in the future. I’m also considering converting it into a self-paced video course in the future.
Why Are You Taking So Long to Read a Single Book?!
You might wonder why I'm taking a whole year to read The Expert at the Card Table, a book that has just over 200 pages. I’ve decided to make this a slow process to make it easier for younger, less experienced magicians to engage with the text. Unfortunately, for a person brought up on YouTube tutorials and instant downloads, Erdnase makes for a very intimidating read due to its archaic language (words and phrases that are no longer commonly used).
Do I Have to Learn Everything in the Book?
No! The aim is not to learn or, heaven forbid, master all the material in the book! I simply want to help you read it. Unfortunately, many magicians seem to discount Erdnase without attempting to read it; I think this is a crying shame, given the importance of the text in the development of modern-day card conjuring. Therefore, each post will contain an extract from the book and my thoughts on it. Serialising the book in this manner should encourage reluctant readers to join in, too.
