Harry Lorayne e-books

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Ian Kendall
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Ian Kendall » May 25th, 2013, 3:54 am

See what I mean? How lucky I was? I didn't have to do these things


Harry; You don't need to understand the procedure, because you didn't ask about converting PDFs to Kindle. But Jim did, and I supplied some relevant information. Some of us are not 'lousy computer people', and some of us are really quite good with them.

Anyone with experience of publishing PDFs and Kindle books should be able to follow that, but it was a very brief rundown of the steps. I'd hate to think what you would have said had I given a more detailed explanation...

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » May 25th, 2013, 10:39 am

I'm so glad - for you and me, Richard.

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Joe Pecore
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Joe Pecore » May 25th, 2013, 11:01 am

Ian Kendall wrote:
How do you convert them to make the PDFs fit your Kindle?


You can also try the free Calibre software or Calibre with K2pdfopt:
http://www.howtogeek.com/69481/how-to-c ... k-reading/
Share your knowledge on the MagicPedia wiki.

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » May 25th, 2013, 11:04 am

But we're knowledgeable in MAGTC! No?

Ian Kendall
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Ian Kendall » May 25th, 2013, 12:38 pm

Harry; don't take everything as a personal attack. There are many polymaths in magic, so it's not unusual for interests to overlap. Not knowing technical aspects of digital publishing does not take anything away from other knowledge.

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erdnasephile
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby erdnasephile » May 25th, 2013, 1:43 pm

Ian Kendall wrote:
How do you convert them to make the PDFs fit your Kindle?


There are a few ways to do this, of varying efficacy and complexity.

If the PDF has been compiled as a tagged PDF, it will display natively with flowing text. If you want to compile to a MOBI, there are a few more steps; one method would be to load the PDF into Reader X and export it to a Word doc (if the permissions allow this). Then you can run the Word doc through MobiPocket creator to compile the .opf file and open that in Kindle Previewer to compile that to .mobi, which you can then load into the Documents folder of your Kindle.


Ian:

Why hasn't someone created a program to cut out all those middle steps? Is it a proprietary format issue?

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » May 25th, 2013, 2:17 pm

Hey Ian, don't make assumptions. I in no way took what you posted as a "personal attack." Why in the world would I? All I said was that I a) do not understand all that stuff about computers and b) nor do I really care to understand them. Nothing whatsoever to do with you. And I'm thrilled that so many are buying the PDFs of my books, but I personally, will continue to read "regular" books.

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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby R.E.Byrnes » May 25th, 2013, 3:58 pm

Got Reputation Makers and it's perfect; I particularly like the distinctive typeface and layout, which evoke the way the letters had real texture on the glossy paper of the original books. I've never understood the quest for every conceivable marginal improvement to anything technology related. The PDF is great, and once it's arrived I've lost any interest in whether it reflects the absolute state of the art in text reproduction. Here's hoping the Kaufman books become available, too.

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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Ian Kendall » May 25th, 2013, 4:14 pm

Why hasn't someone created a program to cut out all those middle steps? Is it a proprietary format issue?


Apparently calibre has such a plug in, but I've not really played with that much.

Kindle publishing is still a bit of a muddle; there are several steps through which you must trudge before you have something suitable for upload. E-book readers are essentially web browsers, and the .pub and .mobi files are web pages with some header information. However, the HTML output is somewhat rudimentary - think browsing circa 1998 or thereabouts, and this is where the problem with direct conversion starts. Most PDFs have formatting that a Kindle couldn't handle well and image placement causes no end of trouble. Also remember that a Kindle is limited to the half a dozen or so fonts it has installed (last year I took a Kindle publishing course where the instructor spent half an hour talking about choosing the right font - a completely useless endevour. I managed to bite my lip through that one...)

So, the bottom line is that you have to strip out all the formatting, and then redo it all and create a TOC (all Kindle books need one to be accepted). Then you compile, test it on all the different flavours of Kindle using the previewer, and finally compile to .mobi and upload.

Do you think I should write something to do all that automatically? It would take all the fun out of it... ;)

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » May 25th, 2013, 5:19 pm

I simply don't understand any of it, and at all. But I do understand this from R.E. Byrnes:

"Got Reputation Makers and it's perfect; I particularly like the distinctive typeface and layout, which evoke the way the letters had real texture on the glossy paper of the original books. I've never understood the quest for every conceivable marginal improvement to anything technology related. The PDF is great, and once it's arrived I've lost any interest in whether it reflects the absolute state of the art in text reproduction."

Now THAT makes complete sense to me!

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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Ian Kendall » May 25th, 2013, 5:42 pm

I simply don't understand any of it, and at all


Again, you don't have to. I wasn't written for you, but for people who have asked that question.

I'm happy that people are reading, whether it be on a screen or paper.

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » May 25th, 2013, 5:57 pm

Me too.

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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Rob UK » June 10th, 2013, 11:02 am

You can also email a PDF to your @kindle.com address with the word 'convert' in the subject line and Amazon will have a go at converting it for you. I've had mixed results...

The only place I can comfortably read a PDF without conversion is on my main PC screen, and I sit at that for long enough anyway. I resent printing the things out, occasionally I'll maybe print the few pages that comprise a routine I'm interested in, but never the whole thing.

I far prefer reading them on the Kindle, properly converted if at all possible. Reading a native PDF file is cumbersome, especially on the older non-touch Kindles.

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » June 15th, 2013, 9:20 am

So, obvious. stick to BOOKS.

Harry Lorayne

Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby Harry Lorayne » June 15th, 2013, 5:07 pm

Because, among many other reasons, you can read a book ANYWHERE so long as there's light enough to see. No?

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degrisy
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby degrisy » December 7th, 2016, 2:36 am

Mr Lorayne why the Hundred dollar book is not available as an ebook?
Ars longa, vita brevis

performer
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby performer » December 7th, 2016, 9:03 am

I have been reading this thread and it might as well be written in a foreign language. I don't understand a word of this horrific computer nonsense. And somehow the idea of Harry's books being made into e books makes me shudder. March of the times I suppose.

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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby HarryLorayne » December 12th, 2016, 1:35 pm

Degrisy: The Hundred Dollar Book was re-done and updated in THE HIMBER WALLET BOOK - and that is updated and re-written in LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 5.

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EndersGame
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby EndersGame » March 21st, 2018, 11:29 pm

Harry Lorayne wrote:CLOSE-UP CARD MAGIC - $15.95
PERSONAL SECRETS - $9.99
MY FAVORITE CARD TRICKS - $9.99
DECK-STERITY - $11.99
DINGLE’S DECEPTIONS - $9.99
REPUTATION-MAKERS - $19.99
THE GREAT DIVIDE - $9.99
RIM SHOTS – $19.99
AFTERTHOUGHTS - $14.99
THE EPITOME LOCATION - $9.99
THE MAGIC BOOK - $19.99
THE CARD CLASSICS OF KEN KRENZEL - $19.99
DOUG EDWARDS PACKS A WALLOP - $14.99
QUANTUM LEAPS - $19.99
BEST OF FRIENDS, Vol. 1 - $24.99
BEST OF FRIENDS, Vol. 2 - $24.99
BEST OF FRIENDS, Vol. 3 - $24.99
STAR QUALITY - $19.99
TREND SETTERS - $19.99
THE HIMBER WALLET BOOK - $24.99
PERSONAL COLLECTION - $49.99
MATHEMATICAL WIZARDRY - $29.99
LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 1 - $49.99
LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 2 - $49.99
LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 3 - $49.99
LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, Vol. 4 - $49.99
SPECIAL EFFECTS - $49.99
TEACH-IN LECTURE - $9.99
LECTURE NOTES - $9.99

I'm a little late to this thread, but I'm very pleased to discover that books from some of the masters of magic like Harry Lorayne have now been made available in digital format as eBooks. Terrific!

Although I've read a lot of magic books over the years, to my shame I've not had opportunity to read any of Harry Lorayne's books on card magic (although I've benefited a lot from his books on memory). It's nice to know that getting these as eBooks is an option, also to be able to recommend these to others, including those relatively new to card magic, or wanting to get some solid material at intermediate level.

For someone who is moving beyond beginner level and approaching intermediate level card magic, which titles would especially be recommended as the best ones to get? Undoubtedly they are all excellent - I've seen a couple of Harry Lorayne's videos - but if one had to choose just a few, what would be the ones of choice?
Click here to see all my reviews: Magic Reviews Playing Card Reviews Board Game Reviews

performer
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Re: Harry Lorayne e-books

Postby performer » March 22nd, 2018, 12:05 am

Everything Harry writes is terrific but I suppose my favourites would be Close up Card Magic and The Magic Book. I also like Reputation Makers and Dexterity.


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