Tricks of the Mind (Derren Brown)

There are some very good bits in Derren Brown’s Tricks of the Mind. His previous two books Absolute Magic and Pure Effect were really great, with an enjoyable writing style and (of course) superb content. They were a lot to live up to, and his latest book isn’t as good.

There are some very smooth presentations described for a simple card trick, and a simple coin trick, but the most enlightening section related to memory techniques. I’ve seen descriptions of clever memory techniques before, but this surpasses them all. I really want to practice using the linking system to remember lists, and to visualise things in order to remember them in general. I think I’ll leave the number pegging system though, even though I can see its potential.

Derren’s lovely writing style from his previous books could still be glimpsed occasionally, but seemed to mostly disappear after the first chapter or so.

The last section of the book is basically a rant, in the Richard Dawkins style but with less direction. 🙁